u 



c^ ^i 



FINAL REPORT 



OP THE 



CITIZENS' COMMITTEE 



ON 



University Affairs, 



^ 



CINCINNATI, O., APRIL, 1900. 



FINAL REPORT 



OF THE 



CITIZENS' COMMITTEE 



University Affairs. 



CINCINNATI, OHIO, APRIL, J 900. 



^A3 



New YORK PU3L. LIBH» 
IN EXCHANGE. 



"PROGRESS in Education comes from the college rather than 
from the elementary school. I believe it is simply because all 
progress in this world comes from holding up and struggling 
toward ideals ; and the college, standing at the summit of edu- 
cation, holds up the ideal standard, and always has. Let us 
hope that the American college always will.'' 

[From a recent address by President Eliot.] 



SYNOPSIS. 



PAGE. 

1. Unauspicious opening of the college year i 

2. Abrupt and sweeping demand for resignations 2 

3. Emphatic protest and peremptory resignation of Professor 
Myers in an open letter 6 

4. Public opinion finds expression in the organization of a Citi- 
zens' Committee, which appoints a subcommittee for investi- 
gation 14 

5. Report of the Subcommittee to the General Committee of 
Citizens. — Searching light thrown on the situation. — -The 
Faculty vindicated and President Ayers arraigned. — The Sub- 
committee instructed to appear in behalf of the Faculty at 
the next meeting of the Board of Directors 19 

6. Pleas for justice before the Board of Directors. — A public 
hearing of the Faculty requested.- — Petition of the Faculty 
for an open investigation returned to the writers by reason 
of an alleged informality. — Special Committee of the Board 
appointed to draw up a reply to the Citizens' Committee and 
report at a special meeting. — The minority denied repre- 
sentation 40 

7. The Special Committee of the Board makes an elaborate 
report. — Indiscriminate accusations. — General defense of the 
Board and of the President. — The request of citizens re- 
fused. — A hearing not granted 51 

8. Resignation of Professor French. — The report accompanying 
the resignation, not presented by the President, although 
addressed to the Board of Directors. — The Board declines 
to (hear the report when a demand therefor is made by one 

. of its members 63 

9. Remarkable admissions by President Ayers 68 

10. The report of Professor French 69 

11. Review of the Board's defense 'jd 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE University of Cincinnati was formally organized in 
the year 1874. The original endowment, provided by 
the will of Charles AlcMicken, who died in 1858, has been 
supplemented by liberal gifts from public-spirited citizens 
and by a tax levy not exceeding three-tenths of a mill on the 
general duplicate of the city of Cincinnati. For twenty years 
a building erected on the grounds of the McMicken home- 
stead served for all university purposes. In 1890 the city set 
apart for the University a tract of forty-three acres in Burnet 
Woods Park. On this beautiful site now stand a com- 
modious central building, named McMicken Hall, and two 
spacious buildings devoted to Science, to-wit, Hanna Hall on 
the north and Cunningham Hall on the south. The Van 
Wormer Library is now in process of erection. The Med- 
ical and Law Departments occupy separate buildings in the 
city. In the academic department the attendance of students 
has steadily increased to a number now in excess of 400, not 
including extension students. The year ending with June, 
1899, was especially marked by benefactions, including 
a gift of $60,000 for Cunningham Hall, the magnifi- 
cent Clarke Library and a gift of $60,000 for a library 
building. The rapid expansion of the University emphasized 
the long recognized need of a President, and in June, 1899, 
Professor Howard Ayers was elected to this position. In 
January he startled the academic world by abruptly demand- 



ing the resignations of the greater part of the faculty, to take 
effect July i, 1900. Men who have spent the best part of 
their lives in bringing the University to the creditable status 
attained, against whose character and professional attain- 
ments no word of disparagement had ever been uttered, and 
whose successful work is a standing proof of their efficiency, 
were suddenly called upon to resign and no reasons given. 
The developments attending this revolutionary measure have 
been so astounding, and so fraught with serious omen for 
the future of the University, as to deserve a permanent 
record. The following pages consist of authentic reports 
compiled in the main from the daily press, and arranged in 
proper connection. All evidence, as presented by the two 
sides, is given in full. 

In the publication of this report the Citizens' Committee 
has no other ends in view than those of justice, morality and 
truth, the only foundation on which a university can arise 
and stand. In the furtherance of these aims will be pro- 
moted wihat is most vital in the life of the University. 



OPENING OF THE FALL TERM, 

SEPTEMBER, J 899. 

DURING the summer vacation the new President had 
sent out circulars in great numbers inviting various 
schools to enter into relations with the University whereby 
their pupils would be privileged to enter the University on 
certificate, that is, without undergoing an examination. 

The Registrar and Secretary of the faculty had been set 
aside without notification, or a word of explanation, and a 
new Registrar, without any experience, had been appointed. 
The registration of candidates for admission had been be- 
gun in June and was completed in September. The faculty 
Registrar appeared promptly at the office to instruct the new 
officer and to assist in the work. To his great surprise he dis- 
covered that one of the President's first official acts was in 
contravention of a most vital faculty regulation as to the ad- 
mission of students. The President had given his personal 
sanction to a certificate from a school not on the accredited 
list and not entitled to such recognition, as the subsequent 
examination of the candidate proved. 

At the first faculty meeting, routine business being soon 
disposed of, the members of the faculty looked toward the 
new President in the pleasant anticipation of an inaugural 
presentation of his plans in so far as the faculty might be 
of aid in their execution. He said: "If there is no further 
business a motion to adjourn will be in order." Adjourn- 
ment followed and the President immediately left the room. 
Astonishment and disappointment were written on every 
countenance. Strained relations ensued during the fol- 
lowing months, yet the members of the faculty preserved a 
careful silence, hoping that more cordial relations would 
finally prevail. This hope was not realized. Of actual fric- 
tion, however, there was none ; friction implies contact, and 
the President held aloof. The sequel is told in the subjoined 
accounts with no attempt at close coordination. 

(I) 



— 2 — 
Resignations Abruptly Demanded. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Jan. 13, 1900.] 

A wave of indignation swept over the student body of the 
University yesterday afternoon when the report that Presi- 
dent Howard Ayers had asked for the resignations of every 
member of the faculty reached it. The news of the alleged 
action of the newly appointed President astounded the stu- 
dents, and when its full import was borne in upon them the 
greatest excitement prevailed. Classrooms were deserted 
and the students gathered in the halls to discuss the matter. 
Professors were besieged with questions, but little satisfac- 
tion could be obtained. It was decided to call a mass meet- 
ing of the students, and this was done. 

Before the students had assembled in Room ii a message 
was sent to them by President Ayers, stating that no meeting 
would be permitted unless the students agreed to act in ac- 
cordance with his wishes, and asking that a committee be ap- 
pointed by the mass meeting to confer with him. 

In obedience with his wishes a committee, consiisting of 
two representatives from each regular class and two from the 
special class, was appointed to meet the President. On 
going to his office the committee were met with a refusal to 
answer all questions bearing on the subject of the resigna- 
tions, and were told that the President had nothing to say in 
the matter at all ; that nothing was known, and even if all 
the facts were known the students could do' nothing. This 
answer of. the President to the students' embassy was re- 
ceived with dismay. 

This move on their part having resulted in a failure, an 
effort was made to solve the difficulty by questioning the pro- 
fessors and sending the committee to see the members of the 
University Trustees. Several of the professors admitted 
that they had been asked for their resignations, and said that 
no reason had been assigned for their removal other than that 
it was the pleasure of the President. As to their action the 
professors were likewise silent. 



— 3 - 

[Editorial from the Commercial Tribune, Jan. 16, 1900.] 

The Revolution in the University. 



The situation at the University of Cincinnati is extremely 
grave. The President is supposed to have taken the revolu- 
tionary action of demanding the resignations of the entire 
faculty. The Board of Trustees has postponed its considera- 
tion of his action and the public is, therefore, ill-informed. 
To pass judgment upon the President would be premature. 
Nevertheless, there are certain general considerations, and 
certain contingent ones, that are immediately in point. 

First of all, a word of warning should be given the stu- 
dents. They should be politely, but firmly, ordered ofif the 
stage. They are not in the remotest degree a factor in the 
present affair. The factors are the President, the directors, 
and the taxpayers as a body. The students, who contribute 
next to nothing to the finances of the University, represent 
only 400 or 500 taxpayers. The city of Cincinnati contains 
some 400,000. people. The student body of the University 
represents an insignificant fraction of one of the three factors 
of the present issue, and, therefore, should have so small a 
voice in the affair that it is not worth considering. And they 
should remember that what voice they have is as taxpayers, 
not as students. 

But while the students have no right to demand an ex- 
planation, the public has. The city, as a whole, has the same 
right to demand an explanation from President Ayers as, in 
other circumstances, from A^ayor Tafel. Dr. Ayers is new 
to the city and does not, apparently, quite understand the 
situation. Meanwhile, v/ithout as yet passing judgment, let 
us glance at some of the considerations which are involved in 
his action. 

There may, of course, be circumstances which justify the 
part of dictator, as assumed by Dr. Ayers. It may be that 
the University is such an Augean stable that only such drastic 
measures as this herculean performance can make it clean. 
If that be the case, the Board of Directors is in a pretty box. 
For years it has been employing a faculty so grossly ineffi- 



— 4 — 

cient that the new President can do nothing worth doing 
until that faculty is got rid of. If such be the case, the first 
thing which the University needs is a new Board of Directors. 

This is said upon the assumption that the President is 
sincere in demanding the various resignations. But there is 
a general rumor that he is not sincere. It is difficult to see 
how Dr. Ayers could justify himself, if such is the case. It 
is still more difficult to see how the public can possibly take 
sides with him. 

However, there are those who believe that Dr. Ayers does 
not intend to accept the resignations he has demanded. In 
the mind of ordinary human nature there arises incredulously 
the question, "Then why did he ask for them?" Average 
human nature, as represented by Cincinnati taxpayers, will 
go on asking this question. If he has any sensible answer to 
this question, let him make it public. Otherwise, people will 
draw their own conclusions, and they will not be favorable to 
Dr. Ayers. 

To sum up, this revolutionary action is of so- strange a 
nature that it demands immediate explanation. The situa- 
tion is so grave that some head will have to go. If Dr. 
Ayers can justify his action, well and good — let the faculty 
go. But the justification carries with it the condemnation 
of the directors and their heads ishould follow those of the 
faculty. If, on the other hand, Dr. Ayers can not justify his 
action, his own head is the one to be taken off. 



Central Labor Council Passes Resolutions. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Jan. 16, 1900.] 

At one of the most largely attended meetings in its history 
the Central Labor Council last night adopted resolutions 
strongly denouncing the action of President Ayers in de- 
manding the resignations of the professors of the Cincinnati 
University. The Central Labor Council is a representative 
organization, composed of delegates from the various labor 
unions of the city, whose members number upward of 20,000 
working men and women. 



— 5 - 

THE RESOLUTIONS. 

The resolutions last night were introduced by Ernest 
Weir, one of the most prominent and influential trades union- 
ists in the city, and were as follows : 

Whereas, It has pleased certain moneyed interests to 
burden the University of Cincinnati with the importation of 
a President for the institution ; and, 

Whereas, The uses and values of such a President are 
unknown to all intelligent men, excepting it be for the pur- 
pose of destroying the popular character of the University 
and making it a money institution ; and, 

Whereas, The said President has pleased to demand of 
all the professors of the academic faculty their resignations, 
or be discharged ; and. 

Whereas, We, as organized workingmen, have often op- 
portunity to witness and experience the brutality and in- 
justice of such a proceeding in factories and workshops; 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, That^the Central Labor Council condemns the 
action of President Ayers, of the University of Cincinnati, 
in this matter. We extend to our outraged fellow working- 
men in the academic field of labor our hand of sympathy and 
cooperation ; we urge them to organize and to strike against 
the obnoxious Superintendent of the Knowledge Factory in 
Burnet Woods, and we pledge them our support until the 
petty tyrant is driven out of town — if that be their will. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Jan. 16, 1900.] 

Calm Before Storm. 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY HOLD A QUIET MEETING. 



The placidity of the meeting of the Board of Trustees of 
the Cincinnati University, Monday afternoon, is said by 
those who are on the inside to be the calm before the storm, 
and that the reason that the matter of the resignations of the 



— 6 — 

professors was not discussed was that a note of discord has 
been discovered and the members of the Board are not in 
harmony on the proposed changes. It is said that before the 
matter is publicly discussed a meeting of the trustees will be 
held far from the eyes and ears of the public, and in secret 
the question will be talked over and some sort of agreement 
thrashed out. Where the meeting will take place and when 
is a profound secret, which the members of the Board refuse 
to divulge. President Ayers may not be present, and the 
Board can form its course of action unembarrassed. 

In the meantime the student body and the interested pro- 
fessors are marking time and awaiting the course of events. 
Their course is problematical and the daily discussions of the 
reorganization which are engrossing alumni and student 
body alike bring out various and interesting lights on the 
subject. 



Resignation of Professor Myers. 



HE REFUSES TO ACQUIESCE IN THE PROFESSIONAL 
ASSASSINATION." 



[From the Enquirer, Jan. 26, 1900.] 

The smoldering fire of rebellion which has existed in the 
ranks of the members of the University faculty since Presi- 
dent Ayers summarily dismissed eight of their number over 
a week ago, assumed most portentous proportions yesterday, 
when Prof. P. V. N. Myers, in a long and eloquent letter 
addressed to the President of the Board of Trustees, tendered 
his resignation, to take effect as soon as possible. The action 
of Prof. Myers came as a complete surprise to all except his 
immediate confreres of the faculty. 

It will be remembered that when President Ayers sub- 
mitted his report to the Board of Trustees on January i6, he 
recommended that Prof. Myers be one of the few members 



of the faculty to be retained. Prof. Myers was to be simply 
a lecturer on ancient and modern history, instead of pro- 
fessor, but this was understood to be at his own request, as 
he wished to devote his time to historical research. 

At the time everything appeared to be going satisfac- 
torily, but from Prof. Myers' action yesterday it seems that 
matters were not as smooth as they appeared to be on the 
surface. His letter explaining his action gives President 
Ayers a fierce scoring. In substance he claims that it is im- 
possible to remain in the University as long as President 
Ayers is at the head of the institution, for by his recent 
action, Prof. Myers alleges, he. has shown himself to be of an 
almost tyrannical nature. He furthermore states that the 
advent and actions of President Ayers have disrupted the 
University, and dealt it a blow from which it will be slow in 
recovering. He characterizes President Ayers' course of 
procedure as "unreasonable, tyrannical, and unrighteous." 

The resignation of Prof. Myers may put an entirely new 
aspect on the condition of things as regards the faculty and 
the President. He is regarded as one of the most prominent 
members of the faculty, and has a great following among 
those interested in the University, who will be in a large 
measure influenced by what he may say or do. His action is 
regarded as of great assistance to the deposed professors, 
coming as it did from one who had everything to lose and 
nothing to gain by so doing. 



PROFESSOR MYERS* LETTER, 



WHEREIN HE SETS FORTH HIS REASONS FOR LEAVING THE 
UNIVERSITY. 

Prof. Myers' letter of resignation, which, as stated there- 
in, it is designed shall reach the members of the Board of 
Trustees and President Ayers through the public press 
rather than by direct communication^ is as follows : 



AN OPEN LETTER OF RESIGNATION. 

"Cincinnati, January 25, 1900. 

"Mr. Oscar Kuhn, Chairman, and Members of the 
Board of Directors of the University of Cincinnati — Gentle- 
men : I hereby tender my resignation of the position I hold in 
your Academic Faculty, and ask that you relieve me at the 
very earliest moment practicable of the duties of my place. 
In the performance of this act I wish first to express to you, 
Mr. Chairman, and to your fellow-members of the -Board, my 
deep appreciation of the favors I have received at your hands 
during the past nine years, in the course of which you have 
honored me successively with the positions of Lecturer on 
History, Assistant Professor of History, Professor of 
History and Political Economy, and finally for two years 
with that of Dean of the Academic Faculty. In now volun- 
tarily severing my connection with your honored Board and 
the University it is but proper that I should rfiake this recog- 
nition of the courtesies and the expressions of confidence 
with which in the past you have honored me. 

"And, in the second place, I wish to explain, though, 
perhaps, there is no need that I do so, why I communicate 
with you in this unusual way. It is because of the extra- 
ordinary condition of things which has been created by Presi- 
dent Ayers, whereby the members of your Academic Faculty 
are cut off from all regular means of communication with you 
save at the risk of what is dearer than life itself. 

"With this single word in explanation of my reasons for 
communicating with you by means of an open letter I pass to 
explain briefly why I press upon you the immediate accept- 
ance of my resignation. 

"It is because, as a believer in the eternal justice of God, 
and as a teacher of the supremacy of the law of righteousness 
in human life and history, I cannot consent to work with 
President Ayers, as he has asked me to do, in carrying on the 
future work of the University, since by so doing, I should be 
giving approval to the professional assassination — I cannot 



— 9 — 

use a less accusing word — by a comparative stranger, of my 
colleagues of many years, some of whom I have come to 
know intimately, and through such knowledge have acquired 
the right to declare that in their persons has been violated 
every principle of humanity and justice. I prefer exile and 
even death with them to association with him who has so im- 
righteously and unfeelingly struck them down in the midst of 
work that the world has approved, and thus brought to them 
unmeasured and unmerited sorrow and bitterness of soul, 
and well-nigh destroyed their faith in God and in man. 

"Had there been in this ruthless work any principle and 
mode of procedure that rightminded men could recognize and 
approve as embodying" essential justice and righteousness, 
then it would be the duty of every one to acquiesce in it and 
to maintain silence — a silence hallowed by profound sym- 
pathy and sorrow. But there has been no such principle or 
mode of procedure here, and therefore for any one who 
knows the circumstances and the facts to remain silent is to 
outrage the most sacred and inviolable instincts of the human 
soul. It is abhorrent to the universal sense of justice to con- 
demn men unheard and in secret, but President Ayers has not 
even made known to those concerned the grounds of his 
action, let alone the giving of them an opportunity to be 
heard in their own defense. 

"They have been struck down in the dark by one who 
should have stood to them, and to us all, in the sacred rela- 
tion of confiding colleague, helpful friend and wise coun- 
sellor, yet who during the half year that he has been our 
President has not once visited a single lecture or recitation 
room in the Academic Department, or come into any proper 
or sympathetic relations either with the student body or with 
any member of the teaching stafif, though every one has been 
eager to cooperate with him in lifting the work and en- 
nobling the mission of our University. 

"Gentlemen of the Directory, listen to me. It is not 
simply the professional life and the reputation of learned, 
and honored, and honorable men who have served vou lonsf 



— 10 — 

and faithfully that are at stake, but the life and the future of 
our University. Your President promises you that if you 
will let him work unrestrained his own will and good pleas- 
ure, he will make a great institution of the University of Cin- 
cinnati. Believe me, men of the Board, a great university 
cannot be built upon a foundation of inhumanity, unright- 
eousness, and injustice. Under an administration that at the 
outset degrades the tenure by which every professor and in- 
structor holds his position, that ignores all moral distinctions, 
and thereby degrades character, the University of Cincinnati 
must speedily fall from the high position it has already won, 
and lose all honorable and moral standing among the uni- 
versities of our land. 

Since President Ayers has come among' us there has 
fallen a numbness and paralysis like death upon the com- 
munal life and spirit of our University. Our college 
community, which should be the most democratic of 
all co^mmunities, where life should be the expression 
of the law of freedom, has become a community in which all 
persons, from the janitor to the professors, are living under 
an undefined law of lese majesty, that renders life as intoler- 
able as vmder a Tiberius at Rome, since here, too, 'to keep 
silence is as dangerous as to speak', for silence may be con- 
strued as unfriendliness toward him in whose hands rests 
without appeal all matters touching the professional life and 
reputation of every one serving under him. 

"Gentlemen of the Board, the same stealthy blow that has 
struck down the men of your faculty has pierced the heart of 
the University committed to your safe-guarding. In the 
atmosphere of distrust and apprehension that this ruthless 
act has created, nothing that is generous, eminent, or aspir- 
ing can live. The very soil in which noble sentiments alone 
can strike root and find nourishment has been accursed, and 
in that soil nothing can flourish save the noxious growths of 
selfishness, servility, and sycophancy. The poisonous air 
diffused around will cause to wither and die every generous 
impulse. It will benumb every fine sensibility and paralyze 



— 11 — 

every noble faculty of the young men and young women who 
breathe it. It will render apathetic their sense of justice, 
make insensitive their feelings of humanity and kindliness, 
and smother in their souls every germ of manliness and 
womanliness. 

"Gentlemen of the Directory, I know that you do not 
understand the situation of things or discern the ultimate 
consequences of the acts you now are sanctioning, else you 
would not, in your right-mindedness, think for a moment of 
sustaining your President in the unreasonable, tyrannical 
and unrighteous course that he has entered upon. But you 
say that you cannot give a hearing to any one who may be 
wrongly dealt with by the President or receive any appeals 
from his decisions, for the reason that you promised him your 
support in everything that he might do. 

"Men of the Board, have you given a promise that re- 
quires you to close your ears to all appeals made in the great 
name of the Eternal, and that compels you to follow Presi- 
dent Ayers as he tramples under foot every rule of courtesy 
and traverses the majestic laws of justice? Ha-ve you put 
out any promise to him as sacred as that which you made to 
this community when before God you took your oath of office 
and solemnly promised all good men that you would hold 
your sacred trust with constant open-mindedness, and with 
alert and unbound conscience? 

"There is a final reason, gentlemen, for my action. For 
me to remain as a teacher in the University under the ad- 
ministration so unhappily inaugurated would be to undo the 
work of my past life, and to impart a false note to all my in- 
struction. I have ever held up before the young men and 
young women to whom I have had the privilege and honor 
to stand in the relation of teacher, friend, and guide as the 
loftiest ideal of conduct, unswerving fidelity to conscience 
and the dictates of duty. I have told them never to follow 
expediency, but ever fearlessly to follow close after right and 
justice, regardless of consequences. If I, myself, as I now 
stand at a parting of ways, should falter and fail to act in 



— 12 — 

accordance with my own teachings, should hesitate, because 
of the pain and sacrifice that the act involves, to set my feet 
in the path which is plainly the path of honor and of duty, 
how could I ever again tell the young of the regnancy of con- 
science, of the majesty of the eternal laws of righteousness, 
of the divineness and inviolability of justice, save in words 
that would ring hollow as sounding brass ? 

''Men of the Board,, you will believe me when I say that 
it is a hard and bitter thing which has been laid upon me to 
do. But as I now go out with my wronged comrades into 
exile from the happy labors, and from the places and the as- 
sociations I have loved, it is with the consoling thought that 
the just God knows in what spirit and from what motives I 
have acted, and with that I am content. 

"I have the honor, gentlemen of the Directory, to remain, 
Respectfully yours. ' "P. V. N. Myers." 



Representative Views of an Incensed Citizen* 



THE UNIVERSITY MATTER. 



To the Editor of the Commercial Tribune: 

The resignation of Prof. Myers, as set forth in your 
issue of Friday, makes clear what has been by many only 
suspected, namely, that a great wrong has been committed in 
the late secret action of the Board of Directors of the Uni- 
versity. It is a matter which concerns not only the instruc- 
tors whose names have thus been branded in the eyes of the 
world, but every citizen of Cincinnati who is conscious of and 
cares for the distinction between right and wrong. Every 
such citizen must feel that he, too, as well as the professors, 
has been "assassinated" in the overthrow of principles of 
justice and right. The method pursued, namely, of remov- 
ing almost a whole faculty without giving reasons therefor, 



— 13 — 

without even visiting" the classes in recitation, and without 
any endeavor to correct the alleged deficiencies by kindly 
counsel or co-operation, may be tolerated for a while in the 
political field ; may be necessary in military discipline, per- 
haps, also, in criminal law, but in the educational realm is 
simply intolerable and destructive and must necessarily be 
followed, unless repented of, by permanent injury to the 
city's highest educational institution and to the city itself 
that can tolerate such methods without rebuke. I write as 
one who feels that he himself has been personally stabbed in 
the injury that has been done to a law, both human and di- 
vine, and because there seems no other or better way of 
protest. ~ (Rev.) John Goddard. 

Avondale. January 26, 1900. 



[Editorial from the Commercial Tribune, Jan. 31, 1900.] 

The Real Issue in the University. 



There is a story of a man of dull sensibilities who was 
fond of beating his wife. The neighbors interfered. The 
dull man looked at them with a puzzled expression and 
then said: "But how do you get into this? It's my own 
wife." Exactly that has been the attitude of President 
Ayers toward the public over the trouble in the University. 
When he cashiered professors without giving reasons, and 
the public indignantly demanded his reasons, he said, speak- 
ing figuratively: "What have you to do with this? It isn't 
your wife I am beating." 

There are involved here two great moral principles. The 
first is that no man is ever the final judge of his own actions. 
The second is that the nature of an action is frequently of no 
greater moment than is the manner in which it is done. 

That a man is never the final judge of his own actions 
is the moral of the story of the man who beat his wife. Such 
a man imagines that he need reckon only with the letter 
of the law. If the woman will not appear against him, 



— 14 — 

why, what is to hinder him? When the illogical neighbors 
rush in he feels deeply wronged. "She wouldn't do what I 
told her," he protests. "She would have meals at hours 1 
didn't like. She isn't your wife. Let me alone !" He can 
not see that no man, ever, can reckon wholly without 
Public Opinion. The letter of the law is the measure not 
of what one may do, but of what, at all hazards, one shall not 
do. In every sort of community there is an unwritten law 
which is the measure of what one, with impunity, may do. 
In a democracy this unwritten law is extensive and armed 
with much power. When one happens to be a public oiBcer 
in a democracy one must reckon att every step with this un- 
written law — with the law that gives the neighbors plenary 
power to break a man's head if he beats his wife. Now, 
President Ayers, a public officer, in a democratic community 
— the holder of a public trust and a user of public moneys — • 
has seen fit to ignore, even to defy. Public Opinion. He has 
said, in substance, that he will do what he pleases 
with his office, and no one shall interfere with him. 
He will dismiss the University professors and give no 
reasons, and if the Public does not like it, the Public 
can lump it. He has thrown down the glove to Public 
Opinion. On Monday afternoon the glove was taken up. 
A meeting of citizens who were bent on getting reasons was 
held at the St. Nicholas, and the following were present : 
Alexander McDonald, Bishop Boyd Vincent, Dr. C. R. 
Holmes, Wm. Worthington, Dr. Curtis, James A. Green, 
Herbert Jenney, Dr. Stewart, Dr. Thrasher, Charles Edgar 
Brown, John Uri Lloyd, Judge Bode, Leopold Kleybolte, 
General Hickenlooper, General Seasongood, Rev. Charles 
Frederic Goss, Hon. John F. FoUett, Dr. Philipson, Francis 
Ferry, W. N. Hobart, Judge Swing, H. A. Ratterman, O. J. 
Wilson, Judge Wright. E. W. Coy, G. Bouscaren, and 
Thomas Morrison. If President Ayefs still believes in the 
principle that a man may beat his own wife and that nobody 
has a right to interfere, he may discover, before long, that he 
is living in a democracy, and not in the feudal ages. 



— 15 — 

But this is not all. The real issue in the University is 
twofold. Not only is there involved, as has been stated, the 
right of the President to be a Czar, but also the question, 
"What is the prime function of a University?" This ques- 
tion comes into play because of the line of defense of those 
persons who are partizan to President Ayers. They will say, 
or, many of them will say, that the one thing now in order 
to discuss is whether the maltreated professors were com- 
petent instructors. Here is the reasoning of these gentle- 
men: "The prime function of a University is to give good 
instruction ; we assert that the professors removed either 
were not good instructors, or for some other reason were not 
beneficial to the University, else the President would not have 
removed them ; all questions, in such connection, of the way 
in which the removal was accomplished, such as whether it 
was kind or cruel, gentlemanly or vulgar, are mere senti- 
mental rubbish ; therefore, we decline to discuss any question 
except whether or not the professors were competent." 

At first blush this specious reasoning may appear sound. 
In reality, it is false. Matthew Arnold once said that the 
trouble with American universities was that their prime effort 
was to produce good lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc., not, as 
it should be, to produce good MEN. He was too sweeping 
in his generalization, but what led him into his error must 
have been the reasoning of just such people as the partizans 
of President Ayers. "What is a man profited if he gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul ?" What is a University 
profited if it make its students able, crafty, skilful, and yet 
does not make them high-strung, honorable men or women? 
And how can a University hope to make fearless gentlemen 
of its boys, and confirm in fearless womanhood its girls, if its 
own official acts do not breathe of the ideal? A University 
can pull through and be a great force for good in spite of a 
poor equipment, in spite of inferior mentality in its teachers, 
in spite of a thousand purely intellectual failings. But it can 
never, not even if it have all the equipment in the world and 
all the genius upon earth, be a truly great and good force 



— 16 — 

unless its intellectual influence be transcended by its moral 
one. The President of a University may fail in mentality, 
and yet, by reason of a noble and inspiring character, do good 
to his institution. But if he fail in character, if he be harsh, 
supercilious or brutal, his mental qualifications count for 
nothing. In a word, the prime function of a University is 
the upbuilding of character. All other considerations, no 
matter how momentous, are secondary. Therefore, the one 
great question, as to the conduct of President Ayers, is not 
whether the University was in need of a change, but whether 
the President, in his attack upon the faculty, has so conducted 
himself that his example will be to every student in his 
charge a stimulus to all that is noble, refined, and heroic in 
the student's nature. The real issue as to the conduct of 
President Ayers is whether or no " 

He kept without abuse 

The grand old name of gentleman, 
Profaned by every charlatan 

And soiled by all ignoble use. 



[Editorial from the Cincinnati Volksblatt.] 

@tn DtJiitglteb be§ Umt)erfttat§=3ftatt)§, yiamtn^ £u:^n, f)at 
ftc^ Betrep be§ ^rotefteS ber SSiirger gegen bie SSorgdnge an ber 
Xlmt)erfttat ba!)tn gedu^ert, ba^ bte S3iirger=23er[ammlung, ttDenn 
fie bem Untt)etfttdt§s9tat£) itju S3efii)Ii:ffe unterbrette, !etne '^ta<i)' 
tung finben toerbe, mil e§ lauter bertiidte D^arren feien. 2)te 
Wdnnn, mddjt al§ SSertiidte unb 5Jiatren begeid^net iDurben, 
ftnb folc^e 5perfi3nli(^!etten tote: 5IIejanber $nic2)onaIb, SSif^op 
SSoi^b SStncent, Dr. g. m. §Dlme§, SOBm. SBort^tngton, Dr. ©ur^ 
tt§, ^ame§ 5t. ©reen, ,§erbert ^ennei), Dr. ©tetDart, Dr. 
Sfiraffier, g^a§. Sbgar SSroton, ^o^n Urt Clot^b, 3ftt(^ter SSobe, 
Ceopolb Elei^bolte, ©eneral §ic!enIooper, ©eneral Seafongoob, 
Rev. ©fiarleS ^^rebericf ©o^ 5rc£)tb. ^oi)n ^. ^oHett, Dr. ^fiilip. 
fon, f^ranciS ^errt), SOS. m. ^obart, m\d)kx ©toing, Q. 2t. maU 



— 17 — 

tennann, 9. 3. "iiMIfon, 3iid)tcr ^Brigf)t, (S. 3:i>. C^oi), @. 3?ouS(: 
caren unb 2f)omag DUJorrifon. 2)iefe ^teufeerung, fo empi3renb 
fie aurf) i[t, beft^t boc^ i^ren gro^en SBertf). ©ie Id^t erfennen, 
mo bie SBurgel ber UniberfitdtS^^SQStrren gu fudjen ift. ^n ber 
UniberfitdtS'SSeprbe befinben fief) offenbar eine ^tngaf)! Wdnntx, 
bie jeber geiftigen 33efa!)igung entbe^ren unb [c!)Ieunig[t befeitigt 
iDerben miiffen, menn bie UniDerfitat ni(f)t gu ©runbe gel^en foil. 
SBenn man fiefit, ba^ ein DIJienfrf) iDie biefer Su^n iiber ^rofefforen 
3U @ericf)t fi^t, fo !ann man berftel^en, mie ber ©ebanfe auf!om- 
men fonnte, eine gange ga!ultdt 5^nafl unb ^aU gu entlaffen. 
Sfiatfdcfitic^ ift e§ mit bem llnii3erfitdt§=9iat^ bebeutenb fcf)Ie(f)ter 
befteCt, alg toir, bie toir iiberfiaupt !eine fjo^t 9J^einung bon bem- 
felben flatten, e§ un§ ptten trdumen laffen. @§ ift balder bie 
^rife gemiffer OJ^a^en al§ ein ©liid gu betraifiten, ba fie ben 
SSiirgern bie 5tugen uber ben tt)a:^ren 3uftanb ber S)inge gei3ffnet 
t)at. §iermit ift aber and) bie ^f(icf)t ber SSiirger !Iar borgeaeidi^ 
net. 5Iu§ ben Steufeerungen biefe§ Su^n ift erfic^tlii^, ba^ ba§ 
Urtfieil ber UniDerfitdt§=23eprbe nid^t ma^gebenb fein !ann. (5§ 
befinben fief) barunter tnof)! einige tiid^tige ^rdfte, inie 3. S3. Dr. 
IRtamt), aber fie inerben offenbar bon 90^enfcE)en mt Suf)n liber- 
ftimmt. 2)amit ift gefagt, ba^ bie SSiirger ber Stabt fid) mit 
ben ©riinben, meld^e ^^rof. 5(t)re§ fiir bie D!J?affenentIaffung ange= 
fii!)rt fiat, nid)t gufrieben geben !i3nnen, fonbern baf3 fie barauf 
befte!)en miiffen, if)nen genau fpegifigirte ©riinbe angugeben, iiber 
beren 9ii(f|tig!eit auc^ bie ^rofefforen ge^i3rt toerben miiffen, benn 
unmi3glid) tnirb man gugeftefien fijnnen, ba^ 9Jienfcf)en oom get* 
ftigen 5^aliber eine§ 2u^n ein Urt^eil befi^en, bem man SSertrauen 
fdien!en !ann. ©o oergeblii^ audi ba§ SSemiifien erfc^einen mag, 
bie geiftige ^infterni^, lDeId)e biefen Cu^n umnad|tet, auf3uf|el= 
len, mbc^ten rt)ir i£|n bod| iiber ben einen ^unft auffldren, bafe 
bie Unioerfitdt nic^t ba§ ^rioat=gigent£)um be§ §errn fiufin 
ift, iiber n^eldieS er nad^ SSelieben fdjalten unb malten !ann, fon= 
bern gum aflergri3^ten Sfieile au§ offentlidjen 9[RitteIn erfialten 
mirb unb bemnai^ ba§ SSoI! ein 9ied|t fiat, 5Iuf!Idrung iiber eine 
ipanblungStoeife ber SrufteeS gu berlangen, bie foldjen DUidn? 
nern, UDie fie oben genannt finb, unbegreiflid^ erfdieint. SSenn 



— 18 — 

btefer Su!)n bie 5tuf!Idrung DerlDeigert, fo bleibt md)t§ 2lnbere§ 
iibrig, al§ if)n unb feineS @Iet(i)en au§ bem Unibetfttdt§=9fiatf^ 
gu entfernen. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Feb. 17, 1900.] 

University Investigation. 



CITIZENS COMMITTEE HAS SIFTED MATTERS TO THE BOTTOM 
AND IS READY TO REPORT. 



The subcommittee of the citizens' organization, which has 
taken up the matter of investigating the method and reasons 
of the recent discharges of professors by President Ayers,. 
of the Cincinnati University, held another conference yester- 
day afternoon in General Hickenlooper's office. Besides 
Chairman Hickenlooper, the following members were pres- 
ent : William N. Hobart, Dr. Stewart, Dr. Philipson, Rev. C. 
F. Goss, and James A. Green. The committee arranged for 
a final report, which will be submitted at the regular meeting 
of the Board of Trustees of the University on Monday next. 
The members of the committee have gone into the subject 
very thoroughly. They have takert up each individual dis- 
charge and investigated the record of each professor from 
the beginning. They have had free access to all the testi- 
mony that could be gathered at the University in this direc- 
tion. They emphasize that they have made an impartial in- 
vestigation, and wish to simply present the facts. They have 
also been solicitous to get at the raison d'etre of the entire 
proceeding — the engagement of Prof. Ayers as President 'of 
the University for a specific purpose, leading to the dis- 
charges of the members of the faculty which were subse- 
quently made. The committee claims to have a formidable 
array of facts, which will be submitted in writing, and which, 
it says, will make the next session of the University Board 
an exceedingly interesting one. 



— 19 — 
A Formidable Report Made by the Citizens^ Committee. 



VINDICATION OF THE FACULTY ARRAIGNMENT OF AYERS. 

He is Charged With Disregard of Cotirtesy and a Lack of 
Executive Ability. 

[From the Commercial Tribune, Feb, IS, 1900.] 

The Citizens' Committee which has been investigating the 
recent discharges of members of the faculty made by Presi- 
dent Ayers, of the Cincinnati University, held a meeting- 
yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the St. Nicholas Hotel. 
General A. Hickenlooper presided, and Mr. Jas. A. Green 
was called upon to perform the duties of Secretary. Besides 
these the following were present : Dr. B. Merrill Ricketts, 
Dr. Jos. V. Ricketts, Francis Ferry, G. Bouscaren, F. H. 
Rattermann, Dr. A. B. Thrasher, Judge A. H. Bode, Prin- 
cipal E. W. Coy, Jdm Uri Lloyd, Rev. Dr. H. M. Curtis, 
Prescott Smith, Dr. Ohas. F. Goss, Wm. N. Hobart, Dr. 
Robt. W. Stewart, Dr. David Philipson. 

Mr. Green read the following report of the subcommittee, 
which had gone into the details of the investigation : 

subcommittee's REPORT. 

Cincinnati, February 17, 1900. 
To the Citizens' Committee convened for the Purpose of Con- 
sidering the Educational Interests of This City : 

Gentlemen — Your Special Committee, consisting of Rev. 
David Philipson, Wm. N. Hobart, Dr. R. W. Stewart, Rev. 
Chas. F. Goss, and Jas. A. Green, Secretary, with A. Hicken- 
looper as Chairman, appointed for the purpose of acquiring 
information which would enable it to report back the exact 
status of questions involved in the pending controversy, has 
the honor to report : 

First — That although your committee has made every 
effort in its power to secure a meeting with the Board of 



— 20 — 

Directors of the University it absolutely failed, as shown 
by the correspondence : 

"Cincinnati, February i, 1900. 
"Oscar W. Kuhn, Esq., Chairman Board of Trustees, University of 
Cincinnati, 519 Lincoln Inn Court, city: 
"Dear Sir — By and upon the authority of a Special Committee 
of the Citizens' Committee called upon to consider questions in- 
volved in the controversy now going on in regard to the educational 
interests of _^our city, consisting of the following named gentlemen : 
Rev. David Philipson, Wm. N. Hobart, Dr. R. W. Stewart, Jas. A. 
Green, Rev. Chas. F Goss. and undersigned, cx-ofUcio and Chair- 
man, I have on their behalf to solicit the pleasure and honor of a 
conference with the Board of Trustees of the University of Cincin- 
nati at the earliest practical date, with a view to obtaining exact and 
reliable information bearing upon the subject under consideration. 
If you will kindly indicate the time and place when it will be con- 
venient for the Board of Trustees to accord this committee the 
courtesy of an interview, we will be greatly obliged. Very respect- 
fully, "A. HicKENLOOPER, Chairman." 

"Cincinnati, February 3, 1900. 
"General A. Hickenlooper, city: 

"Dear Sir — Your very esteemed favor of the ist inst., a'sking for 
a conference with the Board of Directors of the University of Cin- 
cinnati, is at hand. As the regular meeting of the Board does not 
occur until the 19th inst., I have deemed it advisable to ask a few of 
the Board members to meet your committee, and they have indicated 
their desire to do so. 

"If convenient for you and your committee, we shall be pleased 
to 'meet you on Wednesday afternoon of next week, at 3 o'clock, 
at the office of Major Frank J. Jones, in the Fosdick Building, at 
41 East Fourth street. 

"Kindly let me know if the time and place will be agreeable to 
you and your committee to meet us. I have the honor to be yours 
truly, Oscar W. Kuhn." 

"Cincinnati, February 3, 1900. 
"Hon. Oscar W. Kuhn, Board of Directors, University of Cincin- 
nati, 519 Main street, city: 
"Dear Sir — I am this moment — 4:15 p. m, — in receipt of your 
reply to my letter of the ist inst. in which you say: 

" T have deemed it advisable to ask a few of the Board members 
to meet your committee, and they have indicated their desire to do 
so. If convenient for you and your committee, we shall be pleased 



— 21 — 

to meet you oiT Wednesday afternoon of next week at 3 o'clock, at 
the office of Major Frank J. Jones, in the Fosdick Building, at 41 
East Fourth street.' 

"While I have not had time to call the committee or consult the 
views of the members, I fear such an arrangement will not be in 
harmony with their wishes, as expressed in our communication so- 
liciting the interview. I feel assured that their desire is as ex- 
pressed : 

" '1 have, on their behalf, to solicit the pleasure and honor of a 
conference with the Board of Trustees (Directors) of the University 
of Cincinnati at the earliest practical date, with a view to obtaining 
exact and reliable information bearing upon the subject under con- 
sideration.' 

"I feel, and am justified in saying that the committee feels, that 
it would prefer meeting the entire Board, and at the usual official 
place of meeting, where ready reference may be had to official records 
which it may be necessary to consult in orfder to obtain exact and re- 
liable information with the least possible delay. 

"Trusting you may be able to sec the wisdom and advantage of 
this suggested modification, I await your reply before again calling 
the committee together. Yours truly, 

"A. HiCKENLOOPER, Chaivman." 

"Cincinnati, February 6, 1900. 
"General A. Hickcnloopcr, city: 

"Dear Sir — Your very esteemed favor of the 3d inst. is before 
me. I shall take great pleasure in laying before the Board of Di- 
rectors at its next regular meeting, on the 19th inst., your communi- 
cations to me. I have the honor to be yours very truly. 

"Oscar W. Kuhn, Chairman." 

"Cincinnati, February 6, 1900. 
"Hon. Oscar IV. Kuhn, Chairman Board of Directors. University 
of Cincinnati, 519 Main street, city: 
"Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor 
of the 6th inst., in which you state that you will take pleasure in lay- 
ing before the Board of Directors at its next regular meeting on the 
19th inst. my communication to you. 

"In view of the great desire of the committee to per- 
form their assigned duties and make their report thereon to 
the Citizens' Conmiittce. at the earliest practical date, can not you 
consistently call a special meeting of the Board at an earlier date? 
"I am confident that our committee will greatly appreciate the 
courtesy of such action upon your part. Very respectfully, 

"A. HiCKENLOOPER, Chairman." 



— 22 — 

"Cincinnati, February lo, 1900. 
"Hon. Oscar W, Kuhn, Chairman Board of Directors, University of 
Cincinnati, 519 Main street, city: 

"Dear Sir — Not having received a reply to my letter of the 6th 
inst., in which I made inquiry whether you could not consistently 
call a special meeting of the Board of Directors of the University of 
Cincinnati, for the purpose of meeting the Citizens' Committee at an 
earlier date than the 19th inst., I called a meeting of the Special 
Committee, the members of which have been heretofore named, and 
by their unanimous request I repeat their solicitation for an afforded 
opportunity of meeting your Board of Directors at the earliest prac- 
tical date. 

"If this request can, consistently, be complied with, will you 
kindly so advise me, in order that I may communicate definite in- 
formation to the members of the committee? Very respectfully, 

"A. HicKENLOOPER, Chairman." 

"Cincinnati, February 12, 1900. 
"General A. Hickenlooper, city: 

"Dear Sir — I shall try to have a meeting of our Board of Direc- 
tors early this week, and will lay before them the wishes of your sub- 
committee respecting a conference with our Board, and I shall be 
glad to report to you the action which they may take. 
"I have the honor to be yours truly, 

"Oscar W. Kuhn." 

"Cincinnati, February 14, 1900. 
"General A. Hickenlooper, city: 

"Dear Sir — At the meeting of our Board of Directors held 
.yesterday afternoon your various communications were submitted. 

"After a consideration of the matters involved, the Board of 
Directors authorized the Chairman to appoint a committee of five 
members, of which the Chairman of the Board should be Chairman, 
to confer with your committee with regard to the subject inquired 
aliout. 

"That committee consists of Dr. C. A. L. Reed, Mr. J. G. 
Schmidlapp, Dr. J. B. Peaslee, and Mr. Max B. May. 

"As Chairman of that committee I am authorized to invite your 
committee to a conference on Friday afternoon next at the office of 
Dr. C. A. L. Reed, in the Groton Building, at 3 o'clock. 

"Our committtee will be there, and glad to give your committee 
all the information that you may ask. 

"I have the honor to be, yours respectfully, 

"Oscar W. Kuhn, Chairman." 



— 23 — 

"Cincinnati, February 15, 1900. 
"Oscar W. Kuhn, Chairman Board of Directors, University of Cin- 
cinnati, city: 
"Sir — In response to your favor of the 14th inst., would state 
that I have been instructed to say that while we would have greatly 
preferred meeting with the entire Board of Directors for reasons 
heretofore given, to avoid further delay we will take pleasure in 
meeting your committee at the time and place stated — Dr. Reed's 
office, Groton Building, Seventh and Race streets— to-morrow, Fri- 
day, at 3 p. M. Very respectfully, 

"A. HiCKENLOOPER, Chairman." 

A JOINT CONFERENCE. 

At this meeting there were present as representatives of 
the Board of Trustees Messrs. Kuhn, May, Peaslee, Schmid- 
lapp, and Pendleton ; and of your committee Messrs. Philip- 
son, Goss, Greene, Hobart, Stewart, and Hickenlooper. 

To the Board's committee the following inquiry was pro- 
pounded : 

"What reasons shall we give the Citizens' Committee for 
the action of the President and Board of Directors in dis- 
missing the faculty of the University?" 

But little light was thrown on the matter at issue by this 
conference, for the members of the Board positively refused 
to make any statement except upon a pledge of secrecy which 
your committee could not grant. The only reason they as- 
signed was a general, but indefinite, charge of incompetency. 

In this direction and effort we have failed, a failure that 
appears the more surprising, as By-Law V specifically pro- 
vides that "special meetings may be called by the Chairman 
of the Board, or by any two members." 

It was, therefore, clearly within the power and the 
province of the Chairman or any two members to call such 
meeting at any time. It is equally clear, from the corre- 
spondence submitted, that the desire of the Chairman and his 
advisers was to delay and defeat such meeting, although the 
purpose of such solicited meeting, as expressed in the first 
communication transmitted, was for the sole and only pur- 
pose of "obtaining exact and reliable information bearing up- 
on the subject under consideration." 



— 24 — 

Your committee, therefore, feels that it has been unjustly 
denied a courtesy and privilege to which, under the circum- 
stances, it was justly entitled. 

Second- — Having thus failed in securing information in 
this direction, we next turned to the statutes and ordinance 
under and by virtue of which the Board of Directors is 
acting. 

We find (Sec. 4098) that the membership of said Board 
shall consist of nineteen members, of which the Mayor of the 
city shall be one, six appointed by the Common Council upon 
nominations of the Board of Education, and twelve by 
Council upon nominations by the Supreme Court. Term of 
office six years, with power to select a Chairman. 

Sec. 4099. Said board "may appoint the President, pro- 
fessors, tutors, instructors, agents and servants necessary, and 
proper for such University and determine their compensa- 
tion." 

It may further provide by-laws "concerning the Presi- 
dent, professors, tutors, etc., as it deems wise and proper, 
and may, by, such by-laws, delegate the institution's manage- 
ment to the faculty, which the directors may appoint from 
the professors." 

Subsequently — February 18, 1892 — by special legislative 
act the power to appoint the directors was conferred upon the 
Judge or Judges of the Supreme Court. 

Third — We next turned to the by-laws of the Board of 
Directors — written law by which its proceedings must be 
governed — and call your attention to their provisions : 

"HI. It shall be the duty of the Chairman to see that all 
by-laws and regulations of the board are observed, and the 
duties of the officers and agents of the board are faithfully 
executed, and to report any default to the board." 

ABSENCE OF ANY REPORT. 

The absence of any report of any character or kind, over 
the long period of twenty or more years, reflecting in any 
manner upon the Character, competency or faithful perform - 



— 25 — 

ance of any member of the academic faculty, must be 
accepted either as evidence of thoroughly acceptable service, 
or of gross neglect of assigned duties upon the part of the 
Chairman of the Board of Directors. 

By-law V. provides that : 

"Regular meetings of the board shall be held on the third 
Monday of every month, except June, July and August, at 
the office of the board, and at such hours as the board may 
from time to time prescribe." 

From which it will be seen that the propriety of holding 
meetings of the board at the office of the board is fully rec- 
ognized, and should be rigorously observed, more especially 
as this is a public body. Your committee, therefore, feels 
justified in condemning the practise of holding meetings of 
the board, whether regular or special, at any other than the 
office of the said board, to which citizens sfiould have access, 
except in very special and exceptional cases, justified by the 
nature of the business to be transacted. 

We next refer to By-law IX., which refers to the duties 
and privileges of the President of the University, and find : 

"He shall be responsible for tlie carrying out of all meas- 
ures officially agreed upon by the faculty, and of such orders 
concerning the internal administration of the University as 
the Board of Directors may issue. 

"He shall be the official medium of communication be- 
tween the faculty and the Board of Directors ; shall be 
present at all meetings of said board, unless otherwise 
directed, with the privilege of speaking upon any question 
which directly concerns the faculty ; provided, however, that 
all communications to the board from the faculty, or any 
members thereof, shall have been first approved at a meeting 
of the faculty and submitted to the Committee on Academic 
Department, except in cases where a member wishes to 
appeal from the judgment of the faculty to the board." 



26 — 



INVESTIGATION OF BY-LAWS. 



At the meeting of the Board of Directors, June 12, 1899, 
additions were made to this by-law in the following par- 
ticulars bearing upon the subject under consideration: 

"2. The President shall have the power of nominating 
the dean of the academic faculty, subject to the approval of 
the Board of Directors. 

"4. The President ^hall have the exclusive rig'ht to 
transmit all communications from each faculty and from 
each member thereof to the board. 

"5. The President shall have the right to recommend to 
the board the vacation of professorships and other positions 
in the academic departments. 

"6. The President shall have the exclusive right to nom- 
inate professors in all departments except in so far as this 
may be inconsistent with the contracts under which certam 
of the departments are now conducted." 

It will be observed that, while this addition to By-law No. 
IX. does not repeal any of the provisions of the one to which 
it is an addition, it is in conflict therewith in this, that in the 
first instance the by-law provides that, while the President is 
designated as the official medium of communication between 
the faculty and the board, or the Committee on Academic 
Department, it does not, as in the addition, confer upon such 
President the exclusive right to transmit all communications 
from each faculty and from each member thereof, which 
carries with it the interpretation, or implication, that he also 
has the right to refuse 'to transmit any such communication 
either from such faculty or any member thereof ; or, in 
other words, to prohibit or prevent the exercise of such 
reasonable right of communication or petition, an assump- 
tion of autocratic control that, in the opinion of your com- 
mittee, not only diveststhe board of its own legal and proper 
control, but may become prejudicial to the proper control 
and the best interests of the University. 

In this relation it may not be improper to say that, while 



— 27 — 

the dean of the law facuky appears to be in favor of enlarg- 
ing the powers of the President in so far as the academic de- 
partment is concerned, in regard to his own department, he 
says : 

"It seems to the faculty that it would be unwise to give to 
the President power to recommend vacations of or elections 
to the law faculty." 

By-law XII. — Tenure of Office — provides : 

"Any professorship, or other office in any department 
of the University, may be vacated at the end of the academic 
year by a vote of a majority of all the directors, or by the 
same vote at any time on proof of incompetency or unbecom- 
ing conduct ; the person concerned, however, shall in all cases 
be notified before final action is taken." 

Which latter clause means, if it means anything, that the 
person concerned shall be entitled to a hearing in his own 
behalf before final action is taken. 



BOARD S MINUTES EXAMINED. 

Your committee next examined the minutes of the board's 
meetings, in so far as they relate to the matter under con- 
sideration, from w'hich it appears that the first action looking 
to the appointment of a President was June 22, 1898, at 
which meeting the following resolution was unanimously 
adopted : 

"Resolved, That a committee of three, of which the Chair- 
man of this board shall be one, in connection with the dearis 
of the various faculties of the University, be appointed by 
the Chairman to take the necessary steps to secure, at the 
earliest practicable monient, a President of the University, 
and, after securing for him the indorsement of a majority of 
the joint faculties, to report such selection to this board for 
final action." 

Under this resolution Messrs. Kuhn, Jones and Reed 
were appointed, together with the deans of the Academic, 
Law and Medical Departments. 



— 28 — 

February 20, 1899. Mr. Reed reported that while they 
had been diligent in the performance of the duty assigned, 
they were as yet unable to report a selection, and asked that 
they be empowered to send a subcommittee, of not less than 
two members, to visit several universities and cities for the 
purpose of more carefully investigating the qualifications of 
candidates for the Presidency. 

March 20, 1899. Dean Taft, for Special Committee on 
Presidency, reported that they were not yet ready to report. 

May 15, 1899. Mr. Reed submitted the report of the 
Commi'ttee on Presidency, and submitted the name of Prof. 
Howard Ayers, with a highly complimentary written report, 
signed by.Wm. H. Taft, Oscar W. Ku'hn, Frank J. Jones. E. 
W. Hyde and Charles A. L. Reed. 

JOINT FACULTIES NOT CONSULTED. 

It will be observed that this report and recommendation 
is faulty in this, that the resolution by authority of which the 
committee was acting requires that any selection made by 
such committee should be approved by a majority of the 
joint faculties before being reported to the board for final 
action. Upon the contrary, it is signed only by three mem- 
bers of the select committee, and only by the deans of the law 
and academic faculties, the latter of whom signed under 
protest, and only when assured by the Chairman of the board 
that no professor could or would be removed except by the 
board, and then only upon charges and a full hearing. It 
bears no evidence whatever of having been submitted to the 
"joint .faculties" for their consideration, and it never was so 
submitted or approved. 

This report also recommended the "adoption" of the fol- 
lowing statutes defining the powers and duties of the Pres- 
ident, which are as heretofore referred to, and appear to have 
been regarded as an addition to By-law IX., which report 
was adopted by the following vote : Yeas, Messrs. Butler, 
Cunningham, Jones, Luhn, May, McAlpin,.Peaslee, Pendle- 



— 29 — ^ 

ton, Reamy, Reed, Robinson, Windisch anfl Chairman 
Kuhn — 13. 

And at this meeting "Mr. Reed gave notice that at the 
next regular meeting of the board he would move the adop- 
tion of the following statutes as amendments to the by-laws," 
being the same as previously referred to as having been 
adopted June 12, 1899, by a unanimous vote. 

At this same meeting the Academic Committee "recom- 
mended to the board the appointment of all instructors now 
employed in the academic department for one year at the 
present salaries, subject to any increase that the board may 
hereafter make on the recomm.endation of the President. 
Also, the temporary appointment of the present assistant 
librarian and registry clerk at the same salaries as they 
received last year," signed by John B. Peaslee, Frank J. 
Jones, Oscar W. Kuhn and Max B. May, committee, which 
report was adopted by vote of twelve present. 

September 18, 1899, President Ayers reported: "In ac- 
cordance with the action of the Academic Committee last 
June, authorizing me to appoint certain instructors that have 
been recommended by the academic faculty, I have ap- 
pointed" — 

Here follows a list of instructors and teachers, thirteen 
in number, and is followed by : 

"I recommend that Mr. Arthur Knoch, former instructor 
in physical culture and ciirector of the gymnasium, and Miss 
Mabel Halliday, formerly instructor in physical culture for 
the ladies, both be continued under the agreement of last 
session, and that Mr. W. C. Benton be appointed registrar 
at a salary of $720," which recommendation was approved by 
unanimous vote of the board. 

ASSUMPTION OF AUTIIOKITV. 

By what authority the President asserted that the Aca- 
demic Committee had authorized him to appoint certain 
instructors that had been recommended by the academic 
faculty, and assume the authority of announcing such ap- 



— 30 — 

pointments, it is difficult to understand in the face of the 
report of such committee to the Board of Directors on the 
I2th day of June, three months before: 

"At a meeting of the Academic Committee held May 2.2, 
at 3 o'clock p. m., in the office of Major Frank J. Jones, it 
was resolved to recommend to your honorable board the 
appointment of all instructors now employed in the Academic 
Department for one year at the present salaries, etc.," which 
report was adopted by a unanimous vote. 

January 19, 1900, the board met in special session upon 
call of Chairman Kuhn, at 3 :30 p. m. Present, Messrs. 
Arnold, Bliss, Butler, Jones, Luhn, May, Peaslee, Pendleton, 
Reamy, Reed, Robinson, Senior, Windisch and Chairman 
Kuhn — 14. Absent, Messrs. Cunningham, Procter, Schmid- 
lapp and Mayor Tafel. 

"The Chairman stated that he had called this meeting 
to give President Ayers an opportunity to make his report 
on University affairs," which report, in substance, recom- 
mends that the professorships of French and German be 
abolished, and one of romance languages and one of Ger- 
manic language be created. That the professorship of 
history and political economy be also abolished, and that two 
professorships, one of economics and civics and another of 
history, be created. 

He also recommended that the following professorships 
be declared vacant at the end of the present college year : 
civil engineering, Latin language and literature, Greek and 
comparative philology, mathematics, biology and physics — 
six in all — which, together with the ones to be vacated by 
changes, of course, made a 'total of ten vacancies to be filled, 
but by whom is not stated. 

It being pertinent to this inquiry, we submit the following 
extract from this "report :" 

"On January 11 and 12 T explained to those concerned 
that their resignations, to take effect July i, 1900, would be 
accepted if tendered, and in case no resignations were tend- 



— 31 — 

ered it would devolve upon me to recommend to the Board 
of Directors the vacations of these professorships. 

"Resignations were tendered by the professors of civil 
engineering, chemistry and physics, subsequently the pro- 
fessors of civil engineering and physics withdrew their resig- 
nations, and the professor of chemistry alone requested that 
his resignation be placed in the hands of the board. It is 
submitted herewith." 

Mr. Reed moved that the resignation of Prof. Norton 
be accepted, and that the report of the President be adopted. 

A protracted discussion followed. 

Mr. Jones moved that action be postponed until nexi 
Tuesday, on which the vote was : Yeas — Messrs. Arnold, 
Bliss, Jones, Senior and Windisch — 5. Nays — Messrs. But- 
ler, Luhn, May, Peaslee, Pendleton, Reamy, Reed, Robinson 
and Chairman Kuhn — 9. 

The question next being on Mr. Reed's motion to adopt 
the report of the President, the vote was : 

Yeas — Messrs. Arnold, Butler, Jones, Luhn, May, 
Peaslee, Pendleton, Reed, Robinson, Windisch and Chair- 
man Kuhn — II. 

Nay — Mr. Reamy. 

Excused from voting — Messrs. Bliss and Senior. 

The motion of Mr. Reed was declared carried and the 
board adjourned. 

This ends the official record of proceedings bearing upon 
this subject. 

We deem it proper to call attention to some peculiar 
features of these proceedings : 

First — Nowhere, either in the laws, ordinances, statutes 
or by-laws has the pov/er of removal or appointment been 
conferred upon the President. 

Even in the statutes, which were submitted by the com- 
mittee, and which it is supposed were prepared at the instance 
of the President with a view to enlarging and more clearly 
defining his power and authority, and which statutes were 
subsequently adopted as an addition to existing by-laws, his 



— 32 — 

authority is strictly limited to the nomination of deans, and 
recommendation to the Board of Directors of vacation of 
professorships, coupled with the right to nominate to the 
Board of Directors the persons to take the chairs which the 
board has declared vacant. 

When, wherein or by whom authority was given the 
President to demand the immediate and unconditional resig- 
nation of the academic faculty nowhere appears of record. 

It is true that it is in evidence that at, and after, a private 
dinner given by the President, at his residence, on the even- 
ing of October 14, 1899, to which possibly all, and certainly 
a majority, of the Directors of the University had been in- 
vited, he then demanded under conditions of absolute secrecy 
that they defer to, and sustain him, in any measures he 
might choose to adopt in regard to a reorganization of the 
faculty, to which all present pledged themselves ; but it was 
afterwards asserted by individual mem'bers of the board that 
they did mot understand that such a demand and pledge fore- 
sihadowed t*he wholesale decapitation of the faculty. 

PLANNED BY AYERS. 

It is to be noted that President Ayers planned this whole- 
sale dismissal of the faculty about the middle of October, 
or within a month after the time of the opening of the 
University. He had had less than twenty actual school 
days' experience with his faculty, a period notoriously too 
short for any real kno^vledge of the situation. There can 
be no question but that he passed his harsh judgment on the 
professors wholly in advance, without the slightest regard to 
the individual merits of the various men' concerned, of which 
he was necessarily entirely ignorant. 

Even the board itself, under the provisions of By-law No. 
T2, has committed itself to the proposition that any profes- 
sorships could be vacated only at the end of the academic 
year by a vote of a majority of all the directors, or at any 
other time only on proof of incompetency or unbecoming 
conduct ; and in all cases that final action would not be taken 



— 33 — 

until after "the persons concerned" have been notified before 
action is taken. 

While the board has the undoubted right to make changes 
in accordance with such by-law's provisions, it must be re- 
membered that a twenty years' custom has in effect becorne an 
unwritten law under which the "persons concerned" 'have 
continuously occupied their places without going through a 
form of an annual election. 

That, in this instance, a charge of incompetency or un- 
becoming conduct is untenable i-s evidenced not only by the 
fact that the "persons concerned" have satisfactorily filled the 
various positions they now occupy for periods of time rang- 
ing from six to twenty-five years ; that during the whole 
of sucli period not a single official complaint has been made, 
or charge filed, involving either the integrity, morality or 
competency of any of the " persons concerned ;" and that, 
mainly through such acceptable and satisfactory performance 
of assigned duties, the University has been brought to so 
high a standard that its students are now admitted to the 
very best Eastern colleges, such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell 
and Princeton, upon certificares and without examinations. 

In this connection it appears eminently proper that we 
refer to extracts from the official report of Dr. C. G. 
Comegys, Chairman of the lioard of Directors (under date 
of January i, 1895), '^ man who gave the greater portion 
of a long life to the advancement of the educational interests 
of our city, and whose name is the synonym of all that is 
good and great : 

"It is very satisfactory to the board to note with what 
diligence and success members of the faculty have succeeded 
in gaining the favor of many of our generous business men 
toward the growth of our school, thus forming a vast educa- 
tional combination with immense capacity to promote public 
intelligence, order and virtue. 

"When it is considered how little we possessed twenty 
years ago, when we organized the academic department, it 
is a matter of congratulation to behold how broadlv and 



— 34 — 

thoroughly we have become able to offer higher learning to 
the 3^ouths of both sexes in this city. 

ABILITY OF THE FACULTY. 

"Certainly the faculty has done good work, for our 
students are now able to enter the colleges of the East on 
the same plane as they hold here. We have thus managed 
to rise to an elevation of great respectability among Ameri- 
can colleges, and have gained the confidence of our public- 
spirited citizens who believe that our foundation is stable 
and that our faculty is a body of learned scholars and suc- 
cessful teachers." 

And in the next report — December, 1895 — Major Frank 
J. Jones, the then Ohairman of the Board of Directors, says : 

"The present condition of the University is excellent, 
and surrounded by superior environments the scholastic 
training is being conducted with the very best results." 

And in the next report — the twenty-sixth — ^of the same 
gentleman we find : 

"The general condition of the University is satisfactory, 
and we have abundant evidence of a marked improvement 
during the past year in the various departments. The annual 
reports of the deans of the academic, the medical and the law 
departments, and also of the professors and instructors in the 
various departments of the University, are hereto attached. 
I recommend their careful and thoughtful perusal, as em- 
bodying complete, interesting and valuable information of 
the active and successful labors which are being performed 
by these capable men in building up this noble institution of 
higher learning." • 

Again, in his next, and last, report — twenty-seventh — 
he says, in presenting the sub-reports : 

"They are especially commended to your careful and 
thoughtful consideration, as containing valuable information 
of the active and aggressive work being done in the several 
departments of our University." 



— 35 — 

And we now come to the report of the present Chairman 
of the board — the twenty-eighth — in which he says but Httle 
of the personnel of the faculty, but that little is commen- 
datory : 

"This marvelous growth has required the division of 
classes, and has imposed upon the faculty greatly increased 
duties, which have been partially shared by a large corps of 
able instructors, who have given eminent satisfaction." 

And yet it is these men, who have accomplished all this 
by hard, persistent and unrequited toil, during terms of 
service ranging from six to twenty-five years, who are to be 
turned away in disgrace from the doors of the institution 
that they have been mainly instrumental in creating, without 
any assigned reason or assiignable cause. 

SCATHING ARRAIGNMENT OF AYERS. 

And this by a man whose scholarly attainments we may 
not .question, but whose manners and methods indicate a 
total disregard of all the ordinary attributes of executive 
ability, propriety and common courtesy. For it has been 
clearly established by incontrovertible testimony that these 
reputable citizens, learned men, competent professors, court- 
eous gentlemen and lifelong promoters of the educational 
interests of our city were, without previous notice, roughly 
summoned by the janitor of the building to at once repair 
to the President's private office, where, in the presence of a 
stenographer to record what was said, and in the absence of 
other witnesses to the interview, an imperious demand was 
made that they at once attach their signatures to already 
prepared resignations. 

And when the"persons concerned" requested information 
as to the reasons for' such an unexpected and unusual de- 
mand, the reply was only "I have no reasons to give. It is 
my pleasure." And when the surprised and mortified 
victims pleaded for a little time in which to consider the 
matter, they were promptly informed that unless the pre- 



— 36 — 

pared resignations were signed, sealed and delivered before 
5 p. m. on the following day, they would be disgraced by a 
summary and unconditional dismissal, which he stated he 
had been empowered to enforce. 

And, finally, when such threats failed to terrify into 
subservient submission and abject surrender, his threats were 
turned to pleadings and promises that if they would sign and 
preserve absolute secrecy in regard to the whole matter he 
would give them the aid of his commendation and powerful 
influence in obtaining appointments elsewhere — an ofifer 
whose ethical nature will scarcely bear investigation, consid- 
ering the innuendoes of "incompetency" for 'the positions they 
now fill, which have been circulated, for, if the President is 
acting honestly, how could he honestly recommend the 
deposed professors for positions elsewhere. 

This by a man who has never had a meeting of his 
faculty for the purpose of considering or discussing condi- 
tions, outlining his policy, or in any shape or form indicating 
a desire for changes of any character or kind ; a man who 
has never visited any of the classrooms, heard a single reci- 
tation or taken any means whatever toward making himself 
acquainted with the workings of the University, and by this 
action necessitating the filling of the places of the true and 
tried by men of whose ability we know nothing. 

In conclusion, your committee begs leave to report that 
having given this matter as full and fair a consideration as 
was possible, in view of the fact that the directors refuse to 
give us explanations in detail, we can not doubt that the 
President has acted with undue haste, and with scant 
courtesy to his faculty, in demanding their resignations, and 
that he has not even carried with him the calm and dispas- 
sionate judgment of all the members of the Board of Direct- 
ors, many of whom seem to have been no less astonished 
than others at his summary proceedings. 

We, therefore, recommend that this committee send rep- 
resentatives to the next meeting of the board to respectfully 
make an earnest appeal for the reconsideration of the votes 



— 37 — 

by which the President's recommendation was approved, 
and that, pending further action, the members of the 
to-be-deposed faculty may be afforded a full, frank and open 
hearing, which we believe is the only course that will save 
the University and the educational interests of our city from 
irreparable injury. Ci-ias. F. Goss, 

William N. Hob art, 
Robert W. STEW^\RT, 
Jas. a. Green, 
David Philipson 

A. HiCKENLOOPER, 

Chairman. 

On motion of Mr. Rattermann the report was adopted, 
with the exception that the words, "common decency," re- 
flecting upon Mr. Avers, were changed to "common court- 
esy." 

Dr. Thrasher and Judge Bode both requested that the 
portion of the report personal to President Ayers be omitted 
on the ground that .the latter did not have a chance of defend- 
ing himself. 

Hereupon Dr. Goss explained that he had an interview 
with President Ayers and that there was nothing embodied 
in the report of the committee which did not fully agree witn 
his own declarations and with the facts in the case. 

The committee which drafted the report was requested 
to bring it to the attention of the Board of Trustees of the 
University at Monday's meeting. 

SITUATION REVIEWED. 



MEMJJER OF THE CITIZENS' COMMITTEE EXPRESS'ES HIS VIEWS. 



A member of the committee, discussing the situation, had 
the following to say : 

"We have endeavored, in all this, to give the facts as far 
as we have been able to ascertain them. Justice to both 



— 38 — 

sides demanded this. But there is another and more im- 
portant light in which we should look at this chronicle of 
events. A university owes more to those young men and 
women who are assembled within its walls than mental train- 
ing, which enables them to grasp t'he truths w'hic'h science has 
revealed. They are destined to take their places in the 
country, probably in our city, as men and women whose edu- 
cation should fit them to become leaders. It is of supreme 
importance that they should enter into manhood and woman- 
hood with the highest motives and the ndblest aims, that they 
s'hould recognize and adopt the firmest standard of 
right, should have the strongest love of honor and 
broadest sense of justice toward their fellow men. 
If they lare to be lawyers, doctors or engaged in 
commercial pursuits; if they are to devote their lives 
to scientific work ; if they are to be mothers, whose high- 
est duty is to make noble men of their sons, we can not be 
too careful that the first instruction in what is needed for a 
high standard of manhood and womanhood shall lead them 
in this direction. If our University is to be loved and ven- 
erated by its alumni, it should be because its escutcheon is 
without the stain of an act of injustice or a want of recog- 
nition of the highest relations of man tq man. If the 
students are to look up to the trustees as men whom the law 
provides shall be 'persons of approved learning, discretion 
and fitness for office,' let these trustees also be careful to be 
known as men who will defend the rights of their fellow 
men with all the power that the office gives them. Let there 
be no opportunlity for the dharge to be made that 
those who have served the University from ten to 
twenty-five of the best years of their lives, against 
whose dharacter there has not been a breath o'f 
criticism, whose ability in their profession has been unques- 
tioned, whose earnest endeavors to build up the University 
have been apparent to all, have been displaced and thrown 
on the world without the opportunity of defense, without 
a serious charge made against them, either publicly or in 



— 39 — 

private, and almost without apology, for by such a course, a 
serious injury may be done them, in their profession. They 
may find it hard, after their years of work, to seek fresh 
fields of labor ; they may feel most keenly that they are, in a 
measure, disgraced, and that a professional slight has been 
cast upon them, but they can bear all this with far less injury 
than will be attached to the name of the University, with far 
less loss of personal reputation than the institution we hope 
to take a just pride in will suffer, and with greatly less 
financial loss, proportionately, than will result from the hesi- 
tation that will be created in the minds of those wdio are 
disposed to give or devise money to it; but all this injury 
can not equal that to the young people who are having their 
character molded and developed if the University is effecting 
what it should. If true charity and the honest recognition 
of others' rights and privileges are not to be first, if will is 
to take the place of calm deliberation and if the hand of 
power is to be above that of reason, it will tend to blind the 
sense of justice in these young people, and a duty to these 
young men and women of the future will be neglected. If 
those upon whom the responsibility rests have made a mis- 
take, let them reconsider their action and take such measures 
as will appeal to the public sense of fairness. The new 
President has evidently made no effort to ascertain whether 
the men who have been devoting their energies to their pro- 
fessional labor are adapted to the work in which they are 
engaged. A careful study of their ability and work might 
lead him to believe that he could make better use of the 
material at his hand than to engage those to whom the work- 
here would be new. 

"But, at least all action should be postponed until he can 
arrive at a more deliberate decision, and, if there are charges 
to make, every opportunity should be given for a fair hearing 
and proper defense." 



— 40 — 

Forcible Presentation of the Claims of University Professors 
Before the Board of Trustees. 



MEMBERS OF CITIZENS COMMITTEE MAKE ELOQUENT PLEAS 
FOR JUSTICE. 



Special Committee to Report the Reasons for Previous Ac- 
tion of the Board. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Feb. 20, 1900.] 

When Chairman Kuhn, of the Board of Directors of the 
University of Cincinnati, took his seat yesterday and rapped 
for order, standing room, if not at a premium, was at least 
at par, with a steadily rising market until the close of the 
proceedings. 

That a fight was afoot and that the citizens were deter- 
mined on having a full and patient hearing was manifest 
when the delegation filed into the room, headed by General 
Hickenlooper and comprising in its number' the following 
gentlemen : Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, Rev. Dr. Curtis, 
Judge J. S. Conner, Charles S. Stephens, Rabbi Philipson, 
W. N. Hobart and Dr. Stewart, with a delegation of students 
bringing up the rear. While President Kuhn was prompt 
to recognize the presence of the delegation and to suggest 
that it be heard before proceeding with the regular business, 
it was evident that the addresses would be made to a body of 
gentlemen the large majority of whom were fixed in their 
conviction and that the visit, so far as the present is con- 
cerned, would be of no avail. That manifestation became 
even more marked as the day wore on to dusk, and it was by 
a scratch, merely, that the motion of Mr. Pendleton, that the 
board decline to accede to the request of the delegation in 
pleading for the academic faculty, failed of passage. In the 
outcome the delegation was given a very short shrift, for the 
determination of the board was to hold a secret meeting 
of its committee, to report to a special meeting of the board 



— 41 — 

tomorrow, at 3 p. m., Mr. Pendleton remarking that he didn't 
think it would take the committee very long to formulate 
its report. 

HOW THE PROCEEDINGS OPENED. 

In response to the suggestion of Chairman Kuhn, General 
Hi'ckenlooper took the floor and said : 

"As Chairman of the subcommittee of the Citizens' Com- 
mittee, I am here to fill an obligation imposed on me by the 
committee. The substance and the essence of the proceed- 
ings of the Citizens' Committee have been given in the daily 
press of the city. Our request is for a reconsideration of the 
vote by which your board deposed the academic faculty of 
the University, and that, pending the result of that vote, 
you will give the members of the faculty a full, a fair, an 
impartial and a deserved hearing. That is the message I 
have for the board from the Citizens' Committee." 

THE ANIMUS SHOWS ITSELF. 

Dr. Reed asked whether there were any communications 
on the subject, and received no answer. The subsequent 
proceedings of the board, however, showed, in possession of 
the board, petitions from the faculty for a rehearing. 

Dr. Reed continued by saying that the matter was one ot 
serious import, and presented by a forceful delegation. As 
for himself, he was assured of the rightfulness of the mode 
of procedure adopted by the board in sustaining President 
Ayers, and that, while not officially before the board, yet all 
members understood what the subject and the request were. 
He, therefore, moved that the entire matter be referred to 
the special committee which had the subject in charge to 
report within ten days. \ 

Dr. Reamy said he hoped the motion would not prevail. 

"Without the slightest reflection on the gentlemen on that 
committee, I call attention to the fact that the minority of 
this board is not represented on it," said Dr. Reamy. "That 
committee has once reported unanimously in favor of sus- 
staining President Ayers. Every man on it is identified with 



— 42 — 

the report heretofore made. Is it the intention of the Chair 
to allow the minority to be represented? The minority is 
made up of members of the board equally with the majority, 
arid the question is what can this committee, absolutely in 
sympathy with, and committed to sustaining, President 
Ayers, do otherwise than to report again in his favor. Is 
that just? 

HEARD BUT DID NOT HEED. 

"That comm.ittee has already had the opportunity to hear 
these representative citizens, but the citizens were refused, 
and 'have not succeeded in obtaining a hearing. What do 
they ask now?" said Dr. Reamy. "Simply that you reopen 
the case that the faculty may be given that hearing whicii 
can not be lawfully denied to the humblest citizen. The com- 
mittee does not ask that you reinstate the faculty. On thp 
contrary, I am sure if a fair and impartial hearing resulted 
in a justification of the course of the board and President 
Ayers, the Citizens' Committee would sustain you heartily. 
They do not ask that incompetent men or immoral men, be 
retained, but simply that justice may be done to gentlemen 
who have served this board for years, and who have been 
sent forth to the world with a stigma upon them, unheard by 
your board and unheard at the bar of public opinion. Let 
me tell you, gentlemen, that the Citizens' Committee repre- 
sents large educational and other civic interests, and their 
demands for justice can not be lightly overlooked. Yet, in 
the face of the facts, in the face of justice, you propose to 
send back this matter to a committee already committed 
unanimously against the request of the citizens," said Dr. 
Reamy. 

'T agree with Dr. Reamy," said Mr. Pendleton. "I 
recognize the worth and the sincerity of the g-entlemen who 
are here today representing the Citizens' Committee. It is 
due to them, and it is due to the University of Cincinnati, 
that the matter be closed. I therefore move that their re- 
quest be declined." 



— 43 — 

Mr. Butler coincided with Mr. Pendleton. He insisted 
that the board had acted conscientiously and with sufficient 
and good reasons, and the request should be declined. 

A CITIZEN TAKES THE FLOOR. 

But the citizens had in their ranks men who know their 
rights and how to propose them. Mr. Charles S. H. 
Stephens took the floor. 

"Gentlemen," said Mr. Stephens, "I regret to say that 
I am inclined ito believe I am addressing a Iboard whose judg- 
ment has been made up, and the mind of which has been ab- 
solutely formed. 1 hope I am mistaken, but it so looks to me. 
However, I will not refrain from asking on behalf of the 
academic faculty that you gentlemen take courage to do 
right. If any one of you were in the position of any member 
of that faculty, you would demand, as a right, that you be 
heard, and would feel the sting of gross injustice if that 
hearing should be denied. to you. T concede to you all sin- 
cerity, but 1 can not concede that you can form a correct 
judgment on the mere statements of one side to a contro- 
versy. And if you act from conviction, that conviction need 
not be ilisturbed. If, on a ihearing of the charges, an open 
hearing and a fair hearing, the testimony warrants you in 
arriving at the conclusion reached by you some days ago, 
there will not be, as Dr. Reamy said, any objection on the 
part of the citizens. In granting the hearing asked, you will 
be doing but a simple, plain act of justice to your fellow men ; 
to men who have served the University for years, and on 
whose names there is no blemish. In the name of justice I 
appeal to you and to each of you that you give these gentle- 
men a hearing. When you secured a President the citizens 
rejoiced ; but prior to that time there had been donations of 
land and donations of money, and the University seemed to 
be entering on a course of secured prosperity. Now this 
unhappy trouble is precipitated on the University, and you 
gentlemen add to itiiy the fact that you deny justice to men, 
of all men, who deserve it at your hands. Let these gentle- 



— 44 — 

men meet their accuser face to face. Is he afraid to meet 
the men he has condemned? Has lie the necessary testi- 
mony? If so, why do you hesitate? Let the President 
come into the open, and if you find him fortified on the hear- 
ing, then uphold his hands, but do not strike down justice." 

FROM AN ALUMNUS. 

Rabbi PhiHpson next addressed the board, stating that 
he was an alumnus of the University and interested in every- 
thing tending to her welfare. 

"In the expression attributed to Mr. Vanderbilt he was 
radically wrong," said Rabbi PhiHpson, when Dr. Read 
asked him to put the quotation in words. 

"It is unnecessary," said Dr. PhiHpson, "I see you gentle- 
men remember it. I sometimes am inchned to think he 
never used it, for he was a man who knew too well the power 
of the people and their influence on public institutions. I 
come to you today to plead for justice and for the University 
of Cincinnati," said he. "Your recent action will not sub- 
serve the interests of the institution. It will injure it irre- 
parably. If justice be denied in church, in school, in courts, 
in public boards, then the foundations of our institutions are 
crumbling. I have never _yet known, and have never read, 
of any case where an entire class was condemned without the 
slightest regard to the merits or demerits of the component 
parts of the class. We only ask justice; we plead for no 
favors ; we recognize the duties and the responsibilities rest- 
ing on you, and Ave do not come here to impugn either your 
sincerity or your motives. We demand justice in the name 
of American institutions, and w^e can have no patience with 
medieval methods of procedure. They are out of place and out 
of time. I have here two letters from Columbia and Cor- 
nell Universities with reference to Dean Hyde. In one of 
these letters the writer says that if President Ayers regards 
Dean Hyde as incompetent he, the President himself, is in- 
competent as a judge of men or of scholastic or scientific 
attainments. You gentlemen are blastiup- the characters 



— 45 — 

and the careers of honorable men. • Will you pause and be 
brave to do right?" 

THE POWERFUL PLEA OF DR. GOSS. 

General Hickenlooper introduced to the board Rev. 
Charles Frederic Goss, and it is no disrespect to the other 
earnest and impressive speakers to say that Dr. Goss deliv- 
ered emphatically the speech of the occasion. 

"This is the first time in all my life that I have appeared 
in the character of an obstructionist," said Dr. Goss. "1 
would have preferred the part of the listener, but the occa- 
sion demands of no man that he keep silent. In all the 
agonies of life it is not when foemen meet that the pang 
comes, it is when men are made to choose between friend and 
friend. I would not put one straw in the way of any man, 
much less of the distinguished educator who has come 
among us, as a stranger, to assume the high and responsible 
duties of President of the University of Cincinnati. On the 
contrary, my heart and my hand go out to the one who comes 
within our gates to cast his lot with us. But injustice, gross 
injustice, has been done to men, and I can not refrain from 
adding my plea for the rendition to them of that justice 
which is our common and our glorious heritage as Amer- 
icans. 

"Many things have been charged against these gentle- 
men so unjustly dealt with, but not one charge of all has 
been brought home to them ; not one has been summoned to 
meet his accusers face to face, and, as an American, I protest. 

"The course which has been pursued toward these gentle- 
men has not been just, it has not been honest ; it has not been 
American. One gentleman has said that if the board took 
up the hearing of the matter there would be no time for 
attention to other things. What other thing is so vital as 
justice? Why do you gentlemen occupy these seats if it is 
not to hear and determine? I tell you that you have no 
right, when character and the future of the members of the 
academic faculty are at stake, to refuse to hear them, and 
to hear them fully. 



— 46 — 

STABBED IN THE BACK. 

''No greater underlying question has ever been presented 
than is now presented to you, gentlemen. If you leave it 
settled, as you have settled it, there will be constant clash- 
ing, and the University will bear the burden of the injuries 
inflicted. Are you content to teach the young men and the 
young women of the University that a strong hand may 
sweep the decks of faithful men and servants, and that men 
may be stabbed in the back and no complaint of injustice 
be heard? In the presence of these youths I plead for justice 
for these men, and I beg of you do not inculcate by example 
and by action that in strength alone is justice to be found. 
Do right; be calm, be patient, be sweet-tempered. Do jus- 
tice to the academic faculty; sihow tlhem you are strong 
enough to undo what you have done ; let them stand or fall 
on their merits individually ; if there be incompetents, weed 
them out; if there be immoral men among them, cast them 
out from your midst. But in the name of all you hold dear, 
and in the name of common justice, in the name of the land 
we love — be brave and just to all. And, having done that 
which right and justice demand; having placed the accused 
face to face with his accuser, enter on the 'hearing in a spirit 
of magnanimity, of patience and of determination to do that 
which duty requires of you, and then, and not until then, 
will justice be satisfied; and until you do that you will meet 
the condemnation of right-thinking and of right-minded 
men." 

OTHER REMARKS MADE. 

Mr. W. N. Hobart'said that among men of large enter- 
prises, and among all large corporations, the rule was never 
to dismiss an employe without a hearing. He appealed to 
Mr. Proctor, especially, saying that his firm had found, as 
no other had, the value of good men and the profit of keeping 
them and of treating them justly. If the method of the pro- 
cedure of the board with reference to the academic faculty 
were to become a precedent there would be constant friction 
between labor and capital, and anarchy would be fostered. 



— 47 — 

He instanced the case of the President of the University of 
California, who, though he had occupied his position for two 
years, or more, had not yet made one single removal, being- 
engaged in studying the capabilities of the professors and in 
acquainting himself with their personalities. Yet he had 
taken his seat under very similar circumstances with those 
of the University of Cincinnati, when President Ayers was 
elected to the Presidency. 

"They say the professors are incompetent," said Mr. 
Hobart. "One of them was called in by the Saengerfest 
Committee after the disastrous wreck of the building. We 
called him in on the recommendation of Mr. Bouscaren, who 
advised us that if there was to be found in the city a man 
who could relieve us it was Professor Ward Baldwin. He 
carefully considered the situation, and finally accepted the 
heavy task. In ample time for the opening of the Saenger- 
fest, for the delay at the last was not attributable to him, he 
had completed the most wonderful building in the land so 
far as strength is concerned, for you might lay a train of 
cars and locomotives on the roof and there would not be a 
strain upon the building. Yet we are told Ward Baldwin is 
incompetent," said Mr. Hobart, as he resumed his seat. 

No other gentleman desiring to address the board. Gen- 
eral Hickenlooper said it only remained to thank the board 
for its courtesy. 

Mr. Arnold said he could see no harm in referring the 
matter to the special committee. 'T yield to no man in ad- 
miration for justice, and when the committee makes its re- 
port I will vote as I believe justice requires," said he. 

"All that has been said impresses me with the belief that 
deliberation is necessary," said Dr. Reed. "I think the board 
was right in what it did, and I still think so ; yet, after the 
stirring presentation made to us to-day we must make a 
response. I am willing to give a response and to make pub- 
lic the reasons which impelled the board to act. The com- 
mittee can report to the board the reasons for its action, 
so that the public may know them." 



— 48 — 

Mr. Pendleton said if anything had been brought out that 
might cause the board to change its views that would have 
been one thing, but that nothing had been brought out by 
any one to suggest to him that there had been error in the 
action complained of. If a broad statement was to be made 
to the public, giving the reasons for the action of the board, 
he would agree to some delay, and he thereupon withdrew 
his motion that the request of the committee be declined. 

Dr. Reed then moved that a private meeting of the 
special committee be held at which the report could be 
drawn up, to be presented to the board at a meeting to be 
held to-morrow. 



NO HEARING IS INCLUDED. 

"Do I understand you that a hearing is intended by 
that?" asked Mr. Stephens. 

"By no means,"' said Dr. Reed, emphatically. "It only 
means that the committee will report tO' the board the 
reasons for having taken the action complained of. It will 
be of no use for the faculty to appear. If the committee 
reports unfavorably 1 take it that will end it; if the com- 
mittee reports favorably the board can then, if it sees fit, 
reopen the case. But no such action is contemplated in my 
motion." 

Dr. Reamy again earnestly called on the Chairrhan to 
appoint on the committee a representative of the minority. 
He demanded it in the name of parliamentary law, of cour- 
tesy and in the name of common justice, but Chairman Kuhn 
made no sign in response, and the motion of Dr. Reed pre- 
vailed. 

The delegation from the Citizens' Committee then left, 
and missed a goodly portion of the proceedings by their 
going. 

The academic faculty, having had the temerity to ask for 
a rehearing at the hands of the board, was treated with scant 
courtesy. Their communication was as follows : 



— 49 — 

Cincinnati, O., February 19, 1900. 
To tlic Board of Directors of the University of Cincinnati : 

Gentlemen — We have been officially informed that, at a meeting 
held on January 19, your honorable Board ordered our chairs to be 
declared vacant at the end of the college year, July i, 1900. We 
protest against your action as unjust and not in harmony with By- 
Law 12, which reads: 

"Any professorship or other office in any department of the 
University may be vacated at the end of the academic year by a vote 
of a majority of all the Directors, or by the same vote at any time 
on proof of incompetency or unbecoming conduct ; the person con- 
cerned, however, shall, in all cases, be notified before final action is 
taken." 

We desire a reconsideration of your action and a full and open 
investigation of our work in the University of Cincinnati. 

[Signed by all professors concerned.] 

Dr. Reed characterized their respectful petition as rank 
insubordination. He called attention to the fact that the 
by-laws of the University provided that all communications 
from the faculty should come to the board through the hands 
of the President. 

"The communication should be treated with just the 
respect it deserves," said Dr. Reed. "It is an insult to the 
board and to the President ; it is rank discourtesy, and for 
one, I do not propose to stand it. I move the letter be sent 
back to the writers," and the board concurred, smashing the 
right of petition at one very large and fell swoop. 

Then a letter from Judge Worthington was read, in 
which he stated that it was the desire of Professor Myers 
that his resignation should be accepted by the board, to take 
effect immediately. The letter further stated that Professor 
Myers would serve until his successor should be named, but 
as he had been serving without salary for some time he 
asked that prompt action be taken. 

Another lengthy discussion arose as to whether Professor 
Myers ever had tendered his resignation. President Ayers 
said his only knowledge on the subject had been derived 
from the letter of Professor Myers in the press. 



— 50 — 

Dr. Reed moved that the ohair of Professor Myers be 
declared vacant. 

Mr. Arnold said he believed it would be better to soothe 
down, as far as possible, the angry feeling in the University 
atmosphere, and he favored accepting the resignation. 

Dr. Reed was implacable, however, until Mr. May sug- 
gested that the board miglit "relieve" Professor Myers from 
further duty, and with that distinction, with no difference in 
the effect, the board compromised, and the professor was 
relieved. 

PROFESSORS AND TEACHERS. 

The next difficulty came up in the shape of the following- 
letter from Miss Mary De Luce: 

Cincinnati, February 9, 1900. 
To the Board of University Trustees: 

Gentlemen — In obedience to commands that have been issued by 
my father, and that are in perfect accord with my convictions of 
duty, I hereby tender to the Board of Directors my resignation of the 
position of instructor in history. 

Miss DeLuce added that her services were at the disposal 
of the board until her successor could be named. 

Dr. Reed again took the floor in defense of the rights 
and dignity of the President. He said the laws were too 
specific for any doubt on the subject. If one professor was 
to be allowed to communicate directly with the board, all 
would want to do the same thing. 

But Chairman Kuhn found a way out of the difficulty. 
He called attention to the fact that Miss DeLuce was merely 
an instructor and not a member of the faculty, and then Dr. 
Reed moved the resignation be accepted. So the board went 
on record as allowing a subordinate to do that which its rules 
forbid to a superior. 



— 51 



Report of Special Committee on Behalf of the Board of 

Trustees. 



DR. C. A. L. REED ITS ALLEGED AUTHOR. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, Feb, 22, 1900.] 

The Board of Directors of the University of Cincinnati 
met yesterday in special session, Chairman Kuhn presiding 
and fourteen members present. The absentees were Messrs. 
May, Cunningham, Schmidlapp, Jones and Mayor Tafel. 
The Citizens' Committee was not represented, and the only 
persons actually interested in the outcome present were 
former Dean Hyde and a committee from the student body of 
the University. Chairman Kuhn called on the special com- 
mittee to report, and Dr. Reed responded with the compre- 
hensive document given below. 

The annual reports of the Board of Directors have, in- 
variably, given in glowing terms, the work of each preceding 
academic year ; the progress of the students and the devotion 
of the faculty have l^een recorded, and that fact had been 
mentioned by Dr. Reamy in his opposition to the course of 
procedure adopted by the hoard and President Ayers. The 
report of the special committee, drawn by Dr. Reed, it will 
be discovered, confesses the fact of the glowing reports, but 
lays the blame oil false statements made to the board by 
the faculty. 

The point commented on by an outsider was the admis- 
sion in the report that since the retirement of Governor Cox 
from the Presidency in 1879, members of the board have been 
the recipients of complaints, and that if the complaints urged 
against members of the faculty by members of the faculty 
were true, not a single member of the present teaching body 
would have been left in position. And an irreverent icono- 
clast asked why it was that the board allowed itself to be 
deceived by a faculty composed of bickering and accusing 
members ? 



— 52 — 

The manner in which the report was received shows again 
the determination of the board to stand by the President 
throughout, and the side of the board is presented forcefully, 
and the report is worthy the high attainments of its author. 

THE committee's REPORT. 

To the Honorable Board of Directors of the University of 
Cincinnati: 

Your committee, appointed February 13, has been en- 
trusted with two duties, viz. : First, to confer with a com- 
mittee appointed by a meeting oif citizens to inquire into the 
policy of reorganization now in progress in the academic 
faculty; and, second, to consider the application of the said 
Citizens' Committee, together with various petitions and 
communications praying for a reconsideration by you of your 
action of January 19 whereby you declared certain pro- 
tessorships vacant at the end of the present collegiate year ; 
such reconsideration to be granted with the ispecial object of 
giving a personal hearing to each of the displaced professors. 
Your committee begs to report upon both topics, as follows : 

Your Chairman, under date of February 14, notified the 
Chairman of the Citizens' Corrfmittee of the appointment of 
your committee and designated February 16 as the day of 
meeting. A conference was held, pursuant to this appoint- 
ment, at which your committee appeared with a statement 
of facts in writing, prepared to submit the same for the con- 
fidential consideration of the Citizens' Committee. These 
conditions were declined by the Citizens' Committee, which 
insisted upon publishing any statement which might be made 
in its presence. Your committee thereupon declined to sub- 
mit the statements in its possession, as it did not feel that 
their publication would be in the interests of the University, 
and, furthermore, as it did not feel authorized, under the 
terms of the resolution creating it, to commit the directory 
to any public declaration. In consequence of the attitude of 
the Citizens' Committee, in thus declining to receive the in- 
formation prepared for its enlightenment, the conference 



— 53 — 

was practically without result. This circumstance is pro- 
foundly regretted by your committee, Which is convinced 
that, had the Citizens' Committee consented to receive the 
information prepared in pursuance of your courteous action, 
much of the misunderstanding which now exists relative to 
the condition of affairs at the University would have been 
avoided, while the necessity of publishing much that is con- 
tained in the subjoined report would have been averted. 

Your committee desires to make the preliminary state- 
ment that, before an agreement was reached in the recom- 
mendations hereinafter submitted, careful consideration was 
given, not only to the several communications received by 
the board from certain citizens, students and other persons, 
but also to the arguments advanced at the last meeting of 
the board in support of the requests for a reconsideration of 
your action of January 19. It has also taken into considera- 
tion many antecedent facts which have a bearing upon the 
present condition, a brief recital of which may serve as an 
appropriate introductory to the recommendations which your 
committee has the honor to submit for your consideration. 

IN THE BEGINNING. 

The University was opened for instruction in 1875, with 
a small faculty that had been selected by the Board of Direct- 
ors, the Presidency not having been filled until 1878, when 
Mr. Vickers was elected under the title of rector. He held 
the office for six years, when there occurred an interregnum 
that was terminated by the election of Governor Cox as 
President, the term of his office extending from 1885 to 1889. 
The executive office remained vacant for the next ten years, 
its duties discharged jointly by the dean of the faculty and 
the Chairman of the Board of Directors. It was but natural 
that, during the twenty-five years embraced in the active 
history of the institution, many important changes should 
take place in the personnel of the faculty. These were 
accomplished in various ways, the resignation of a professor 
sometimes resulted in the promotion of an assistant or an 



— 54 — 

instructor who had been employed in the first instance with 
no expectation of his elevation to the professorship. Some 
men were added to the faculty upon the recommendation of 
that body, others were elected by the board solely upon nom- 
ination by some of its members. A few only were selected 
upon the nomination of the executive. It thus happens that 
the faculty as a body is not at present, nor has it at any time 
in its history been, the product of a central directing and 
organizing intelligence such as can be typified only in an able 
President. It is not surprising that, among elements thus 
broiUght together, there should be lack of congeniality and 
harmony. This fact 'has been empihasized in all stages of the 
history of the institution, but especially has it manifested 
itself in discord arising in connection with the deanship. 

THE APPLE OF DISCORD. 

This ofiice has become such a source of jealousy and 
bickering that after the retirement of Governor Cox from 
the Presidency and, upon the solicitation of the faculty itself, 
the Board of Directors enacted a rule prescribing that each 
professor should hold tliat office for a year at a time, each 
one succeeding to it in the order of his seniority. This rule, 
which had been enacted at the instance of the faculty as the 
solution of its own difficulties, speedily aggravated the very 
condition it was designed to overcome, a fact that speedily 
became patent to members, some of whom are yet in the 
board. An effort was soon made to rescind it, but failed 
because of the opposition of those Who had enacted and who 
felt that it ought to have further trial. The continued trial 
only showed that as each professor succeeded to the deanship 
either he, or some friend for him, sought to make his appoint- 
ment either permanent or a stepping stone to the vacant 
Presidency ; while other members of the faculty, equally am- 
bitious, were equally active in preventing isuch a consumma- 
tion. The opposition in these instances would take various 
forms, such as personal detraction, charges of professional 
incompetency, or acts of antagonism open or covert, calcu- 



— 55 — 

lated to mar, if not to destroy, the force of the prevailing 
administration. Candidacies for the Presidency were crop- 
ping up in the faculty, each particular one leading to in- 
trigues pro and con, the existence and mischievous results of 
which could not escape the attention of the members of the 
directory. The friction thus developed in the faculty became 
so pronounced and its disastrous results so evident that the 
board, which, by this time, had undergone hnportant changes 
in personnel, rescinded the rule and appointed a dean an- 
nually, the appointment of the same office to be renewable at 
the pleasure of the board. It was hoped that this change 
■would end the difficulty, but the demoralization which had 
been engendered seemed to have become permanent, while 
anything like a wlholesome esprit du corps, if it had ever 
existed in the faculty, ihad become a thing of the past. 

THE COMING OF THE PRESIDENT. 

It is to be recognized, as already intimated, that the 
long vacancy in the Presidency was contributory to the 
demoralization. There ^was no time when this fact was not 
recognized by the directory, which, however, was unable to 
employ a President because of the lack of funds. The chairs 
in the faculty had been increased in number to meet the 
teaching requirements of the institution, while the progres- 
sive demands, at no time unreasonable, of the professors, for 
increase of salaries had absorbed the revenue of the institu- 
tion. When the directory finally secured the present three- 
tenths mill levy the increased revenue thereby afforded was 
absorbed by payments into the sinking fund and the extra- 
ordinary expense incident to the furnishing and equipment 
of the new university buildings. As soon, however, as there 
was a prospect of having some m.oney with whidh to move in 
the matter, active steps were taken to secure a President. 
The committee appointed for this purpose opened extensive 
correspondence and visited many of the leading universities ; 
among others Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, 
Harvard and University of Chicago," in quest of a suitable 



— 56 — 

man. Their diligence was stimulated by a knowledge 
of the constantly increasing confusion in the aca- 
demic faculty, by the full realization of the fact 
that, without important changes, the situation was, and 
would continue to be, hopeless, and, finally, they were 
spurred by the conviction that these changes could, 
or at least should, be made only under the direction 
of a President who was familiar alike with modern 
university methods and with the educational field from which 
new incumbents must be drawn. The result of the efforts 
of the committee was the unanimous election of Dr. Howard 
Ayers to the Presidency. Dr. Ayers, who, at the time of his 
election, was professor of biology in the University of Mis- 
souri, was selected not only because he was a well-educated 
man, a graduate of Harvard and of a leading German uni- 
versity, but because he had had experience in modern univer- 
sity work, notably at Harvard, the University of Michigan 
and the University of Missouri, and had been singularly suc- 
cessful in managing some important features of the external 
policy of the institution with which he was last connected. 
He was familiar with men in the educational field and en- 
joyed a reputation for unquestioned morality, exalted integ- 
rity and intrepid courage — qualities which the committee 
felt were essential in dealing with the situation at the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati. 

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE DIRECTORY. 

The foregoing statements make it apparent that the policy 
of reorganization had its initiative in the directory before the 
Presidency was filled ; indeed, that the 'necessity for carrying 
out such a policy was the pressing consideration for filling the 
executive office. The by-laws were amended, giving the 
President the power of recommending to the board changes 
in the faculty, and these amendments were made, first, with 
reference to the execution of this policy, and, second, with 
reference to the subsequent good government of the institu- 
tion. The policy was further affirmed by the directory in its 



— 57 — 

emphatic adoption of the changes recommended by President 
Ayers. These acts, which were made public, were sufficient 
evidences of the responsibihty of the directory — a respon- 
sibiHty the full measure of which the governing body has 
shown no disposition to evade ; on the contrary, it has made 
its position known by every means consistent with the proper 
protection of the welfare of the University. Your committee 
can state with propriety that the sentiment actuating the 
directory on this question is >so deep and profound that there 
are those among its members who feel that they can not con- 
sistently remain in the board if the changes already declared 
are not carried out, while among those who have expressed 
themselves to this effect are honored benefactors of the 
University. The policy is, therefore, the policy of the 
directory and is the policy of President Ayers only by virtue 
of his concurrence in the policy of the governing body. This 
fact should be clearly recognized, the responsibility should be 
placed precisely where it belongs, While the present gratui- 
tous persecution of President Ayers should cease. 

It is probable that each member of the directory — and 
your committee knows of absolutely none who does not be- 
lieve that some changes ought to have been made, but who, 
in addition to facts of common knowledge, is actuated in 
his convictions toy reasons peculiar to himself, among those 
facts of general knowledge to the board whidh could not but 
have had a profound influence upon its course, are some ca- 
pable of short summarization. 

COMPLAINTS FROM ALUMNT. 

Since Governor Cox retired from the Presidency mem- 
bers of the board have been the recipients of complaints, and 
serious complaints, from students and alumni. These com- 
plaints have ranged from recitals of discourtesies to ex- 
amples of demonstrated ignorance of subjects assumed to be 
taught by members of the faculty. The derelictions of cer- 
tain professors have at times aroused the contempt of the 
student body to a degree that has found damaging public ex- 



— 58 — 

.pression. The lack of discipline in the faculty and in several 
of the teaching departments promoted rather than suppressed 
such demonstrations by the student body, whose judgment 
has been and is confirmed in numerous ways. Chief among 
these is the fact that, with an honorable exception or two, 
no original work worthy of note has been done by members 
of the faculty, wihile practically nothing has been published 
by them calculated to make ifhe University attractive to resi- 
dent, much. less non-resident, students — a distinct feature of 
a professor's duty. Some of the professors are practically 
unknown to the literature of their respective subjects, even 
after long years of identification with their respective depart- 
ments of instruction. These facts were confirmed, by 
indubitable and even embarrassing testimony .received by 
the Committee on President while making a tour of the lead- 
ing universities. On those trips that committee was more 
than once chagrined to ascertain the exact status of the in- 
stitution it was representing — a status widely at variance 
from that which, upon representation from the faculty, had 
been given our University in our annual reports. The judg- 
ment of more than one prominent educator expressed to that 
committee as to what was necessary to place the University 
in the rank it sliould occupy among progressive institutions 
is finding expression in the present policy of reorganization. 
The committee found men — ^President Ayers among them — 
who were disinclined to consider the Presidency, because of 
the removals from the faculty which it would be necessary 
to make before a first-class man might with safety entrust 
his reputation to the institution. Graduates in various parts 
of the country have been severe in their criticisms of the 
scholarship in the faculty. The conclusion derived from 
such evidence is further confirmed by the significent fact that 
every member of the .alumni who is a member of the di- 
rectory, eadh of whom knows the University from every 
standpoint and who can be actuated only by a desire to pro- 
mote the status of his alma mater, is an ardent supporter of 
the chansfes which have been declared. Evidence of this 



— 59 — 

kind can not be refuted, but, if it could, that offered by the 
faculty must 'be accepted as conclusive. Within the last dec- 
ade members of the board have received with annoying 
frequency denunciatory statements from professors about 
every member of the faculty. 

PROFESSORS ACCUSE EACH OTHER. 

As a matter of fact, if all the suggestions of removal 
urged by members of the faculty against members of the 
faculty had been acted upon, not a single member of the 
present teaching body would have been left in position. If 
the statements made by professors against professors were 
true, the verdict should be upon that basis ; if the statements 
were untrue, the moral perturbation thereby implied makes 
their authors unfit to be connected with an institution of 
learning; in either event the faculty falls as a self-con- 
demned body. These facts f oi'ce the necessity of action upon 
the directory, which is charged in the will of Charles Mc- 
Micken to see that "instruction is given in the highest 
branches of learning to the same extent that they are now, 
or hereafter may he, taught in the leading universities of the 
land;" and action under this solemn injunction can not im- 
ply less than the termination of a regime that has provoked 
the public contempt of the student body ; that is denounced 
by distinguished alumni ; that is discredited by eminent edu- 
cators ; that is condemned by its own testimony, and that is 
repudiated by its own benefactors. 

When the time came for action it was not expected of 
President Ayers to visit the classroom,' and thus to make 
himself personally familiar with the technical qualifications 
of the different professors. Such a course would have im- 
plied years of investigation, and its prosecution would have 
been as demoralizing as the evils sought to be remedied. 
Presidents of universities are not in the habit of following 
such a policy, and members of your committee who have 
taken full four years' courses in some of the leading univer- 
sities have never seen the President in the classroom. 



— 60 — 

There are other and better means of determining the 
qualifications of a professor, not all of which are technical 
or educational. Nor was it expected that President Ayers 
would ibe able to please tliose v\/*hose resignations were asked, 
nor the friends interested in them, for the very nature of his 
unhappy duty made such a result impossible. Your com- 
mittee, however, after a full investigation of the facts, is 
gratified to report that he discharged the task with a dignity 
and gentleness that commends itself to favorable considera- 
tion. 

EXPEDIENCE AND POLITICAL PULLS. 

The question as to the expediency of having made the 
changes all at once, as they were made, or of making them 
gradually, as 'has been suggested, is one which under the 
circumstances can hardly have two sides. These circum- 
stances, as already given, were complicated by evidences of 
more than one kind of a determination on the part of the 
faculty, or at least members of it, to perpetuate a regime 
which had become pernicious. Protests were made by mem- 
bers of the faculty against giving the President the power 
of recommeding removals. Intimations ^warning President 
Ayers against attempting removals from the faculty were 
forwarded 'to him from within that body before his removal 
to Cincinnati, while an early opportunity was taken to im- 
press him with the strong political influence of different pro- 
fessors. Since his occupation of the office there have been 
repeated manifestations of insubordination, not the least 
flagrant of which was a recent letter in the public prints. A 
process of gradual removals, as has been demonstrated in 
other institutions, would have meant an annual disturbance 
hardly less pronounced than we are now experiencing ; it 
would have meant the induction of new incumbents into un- 
congenial associations and under inimical influences, and. 
finally, it would have meant the utter impossibility of secur- 
ing some of the first-class men now offering themselves for 
appointment to the present vacancies in the faculty. On the 



— 61 — 

other hand, the policy that was adopted by giving to the pro- 
fessors an opportunity to resign was humanely designed to 
save them from the opprobrium of dismissal ; by inaugurat- 
ing the movement at tliis time, the professors being per- 
mitted to remain until June, it was thoughtfully intended to 
give them an opportunity to secure positions in other institu- 
tions, practically all of which make their contracts the first of 
each calendar year ; by effecting the change^^ in a radical way 
it was designated to abbreviate an unpleasant incident, while 
the thoroughness of your action was and is designed to em- 
phasize the fact that a new and better regime has been in- 
augurated in our University. This fact is conspicuously rec- 
ognized in the extensive correspondence from the many first- 
dass men who have become applicants for the vacancies now 
existing in the faculty — men, some of whom would not en- 
tertain overtures to come here until after the present radical 
step 'had been taken. The men who will be selected by your 
honorable body will bring new energy and new methods into 
the institution, and by their general superiority v^ill stand as 
a final vindication of the action you have taken. It may be 
said with truthfulness that should the entire present faculty 
withdraw in a body the work of the classes would go on 
with but trifling interruption. There is not, therefore, a 
crisis, or anything like a crisis, in the affairs of the Univer- 
sity, and there does not exist in the present necessities of the 
institution any reason why you should retrace a single step 
already taken by your honorable body in the work of reor- 
ganization. It is a fact with no exception known to your 
committee, that every member of the board regretted the ne- 
cessity of disturbing any professor in the relations he for- 
merly sustained to the University, while each one hoped that 
some cherished friend in the faculty might escape the execu- 
tive decree. This sentiment, together with a full knowledge 
that to effect the changes w'hich have been made would be 
to engender deep feeling and hars^h criticism, converted an 
evident duty into a most unwelcome task. It was not ren- 
dered less so by the conviction that duty likewise demanded 



— 62 — 

from the board a silence that would lead to a misunder- 
standing and censure — a silence which is now broken only 
in response to demands which your cominittee looks upon 
as 'being as inconsiderate and unwise as they are imperative. 

THE FINAL CONCLUSION. 

It was with this feeling that the board, consisting of the 
Chairman, Mr. Oscar W. Kuhn, and Messrs. Frank J. Jones. 
Wm. A. Procter, Briggs Cunningham, J. G. Schmid- 
lapp, Elliott H. Pendleton, Joseph J. Butler, J. Wm. 
Luhn, Edward Senior, Chas. F. Windisch, Max B. May, 
John B. Peaslee, Brent Arnold, Dr. T. A. Reamy, J. M. Rob- 
inson, E. T. Bliss, Mayor Tafel and Charles A. L. Reed, after 
long and diligent study of the situation, approached the work 
of reorganization, and, with an all but unanimous vote, 
adopted the recommendations of Dr. Ayers. That report 
contained a probable disappointment for every man who 
voted for its adoption, but the board was actuated by the 
conviction that the time had arrived when personal pref- 
erences sihould Ibe subordinate to public duty. It had spent 
years in accumulating evidence, and it was conscious of no 
necessity for trifling away further time on either interested 
testimony or specious argumentation. It knew the facts 
and acted upon them. This point, however, was not attained 
until many years of experience and observation had settled 
into that general, but profound, conviction that comes onlv 
after long and earnest devotion to the welfare of an enter- 
prise or an institution. Your committee believe that your 
honorable board has not sought and does not desire to make 
a case against any particular professor, but has taken steps 
to terminate a regime the continuation of whidh is deemed 
inimical to the welfare of the University. This being true, 
and recognizing the demoralizing influence, to say nothing of 
the utter futility of a formal hearing in the case of each in- 
dividual professor, your committee recommends that the 
clerk be and is hereby instructed to notify the Chairman of 



— 63 — 

the Citizens' Committee and other petitioners that their re- 
quest that you reconsider your action of January 19, declar- 
ing certain vacancies in the academic faculty, is respect- 
fully declined. Oscar W. Kuhn. 

Charles A. L. Reed. 

John B. Peaslee, 

Max B. May. 

Elliott li. Pendleton, 

On the conclusion of the reading of the report hy Dr. 
Reed, Mr. Butler moved its adoption, and Chairman Kuhn 
put 'the question. The one negative vote, fourteen members 
being present, was cast by Dr. Reamy, and Chairman Kuhn 
declared the report approved. 



An Incident. 



On the morning of March 5, 1900, the Professor of 
Physics informed the President that he desired, if possible, 
to retire from the University at the end of two weeks, by 
which time he would have discharged all of his responsibil- 
ities in connection with the construction of the new physical 
laboratory. In order to avoid the disturbance of his classes 
he strongly recommended the President to allow the In- 
structor in Physics to take charge of them for the remainder 
of the term. With proper assistance the Instructor could do 
this as he had been in the department for six years, was 
familiar with the Professor's methods, and would con- 
tinue the use of his ■syllaibu'S to the great convenience of the 
students. 

After this interview with the President, the Professor 
of Physics immediately informed the Instructor in Physics 
of the action he had taken. The President summoned the 
Instructor to a conference and one hour later the Professor 
of Plivsics received the followins: communication: 



— 64 — 

Cincinnati, March 5, 1900. 
Prof. Thomas French, Jr., 

Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati. 
Dear Sir:- — 

I have made arrangements for continuing your part of the work 
in Physics, beginning with to-morrow morning. 

I assume that this arrangement will please you, since it relieves 
you at once, and I am glad to be able to accommodate you thus 
promptly. Very truly yours, 

Howard Ayers. 

This communicaition was responded to as follows : 

Cincinnati, O., March 5, 1900. , 

Dr. Howard Ayers : 
Dear Sir: — 

Your note offering to relieve me from further work is received. 

In keeping with your expressed wish I gave you the desired 
notice of my intention of placing my resignation in your hands on 
the day of the next Board meeting two weeks from to-day. I was 
employed by the Board and, as a man of honor, I desire to continue 
my work until the Board has had an opportunity of acting on my 
resignation. Yours, etc., 

Thomas French, Jr. 

It is needless to add that the Professor continued faith- 
fully in the discharge of his duties until relieved by fhe 
proper authorities. 



Unjust Censure of the Faculty. 



REFUSAL TO HEAR THE REPORT OF PROF. THOMAS FRENCH 
ACCOMPANYING HIS RESIGNATION. 



Remarkable Admissions by President Ayers. 



[From the Commercial Tribune, March 19, 1900.] 

The members of the Board of Trustees of the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati were slow in gathering around the big 
table yesterday, and the telephone was called into requisi- 



— 65 — 

tion hi the efforts to secure even a quorum. It is probable 
that, *had the members known of the coming of the com- 
munication of Prof. Thomas French and of the motions made 
by Dr. Reamy, the attendance would have been prompt and 
complete. From Chairman Kuhn down there were state- 
ments that the meeting would be uneventful and a speedy 
adjournment follow the roll-call. But the reckoning was 
without the ihost, and the first gun was fired on the motion 
to approve the minutes of the last regular meeting of the 
board, at which the Citizens' Committee presented its 
protest. 

Chairman Kuhn put the motion on the approval of the 
minutes, when Dr. Reamy took the floor : — 

"I desire to call the attention of the board to that por- 
tion of the minutes which concerns the action of the board, 
directing the return to the academic faculty of their petition 
for a hearing at the hands of the board. 

"It was claimed at the time, and as the basis for the action 
of the board, that the communication had not come through 
the proper channel, the hands of the President," said Dr. 
Reamy. 'Tt was stated by the gentleman proposing the 
motion. Dr. Reed, that the academic faculty had been guiltv 
of an act of gross insubordination in presenting the petition 
directly to the board. The affirmative vote by which the 
petition was returned to the academic faculty was given 
under a misapprehension, for the President bad, at the very 
moment the vote was taken and the result announced, and 
before that time, the original letter of the academic faculty 
in his pocket, and >said nothing while the academic faculty 
was being censured by this board for an offense of which the 
members of the faculty were innocent. The Chairman of 
the iboard knew at the time that the petition was in the hands 
of the President, yet neither he nor the President, and I am 
greatly surprised at it, said one word of that possession. I told 
Dr. Reed of the facts, and now give him the opportunity to 
move to expunge from the minutes the action of the board." 



66 — 



THE DEBATE LIVENS UP. 



"Nevertheless, such was the action of the board," said 
Chairman Kuhn. "Af^er the approval of the minutes a mo- 
tion to expunge would be in order, if any member should 
make it." 

The matter dropped for the moment and President Ayers. 
sulbmitted his monthly repor't, the details of which, together 
with other routine business transacted, are given in another 
Column. In the report of the President he mentioned the 
fact of his receipt of the resignation of Prof. French, of the 
Department of Physios, and recommended thait it be accepted,, 
as Prof. French did not desire to remam at the University 
until the close of the academic year. 

Dr. Reamy asked if the resignation of Prof. French was 
not accompanied by a communication. President Ayers re- 
sponded affirmatively, and Dr. Reamy demanded that it be 
read to the board. 

"The communication of Prof. French is not lengthy," 
said Dr. Reamy, "but it is of immense value to us and to the 
public at ithis time, showing, as it does, clearly and concisely 
the work done in his department at the University. It ib 
due to Prof. French, it is due to, the University, it is due to us 
and due to the public that it be read. If there is in it one 
word of harsh criticism of the board, I will move to stay 
the reading." 

Mr. May promptly moved that the communication be 
referred to the Committee on Academic Department, and met 
with a second. 

"Such a course is not respectful to Prof. French. It is. 
disrespectfuil in the highest degree to a gentleman who has- 
served the University for seventeen long years, and served it 
faithfully and with honor," said Dr. Reamy. "Members of 
this board have stood on this floor, and we have had speeches 
from them telling of the wonderful work of the University 
of Cincinnati, its glory and its prosperity, its growth and 
its fulness of accomplishment. Now comes one of the pro- 



— 67 — 

fessors who participated largely in the great work and send^ 
in a respectful communication, giving a summary of his 
work done under your administration ; a communication 
more important to us than any that has come to us for 
months. I insist that it be read, for it is due to him and to 
ourselves, to our self-respect, to our dignity and to our con- 
.jciousness of right to hear it. 

DO YOU WANT TO SMOTHER IT? 

"Do you want to smother it?" asked Dr. Reamy, when 
Mr. May called for the question, and the paper was referred. 

Thereupon the board took up its burden of routine again, 
and matters progressed in quiet until Dr. Reed took the floor 
and asked : 

'T want to speak to the motion of Dr. Reamy that certain 
portions of the minutes be expunged," said he. "I made the 
motion to return the communication of the academic faculty 
to the gentlemen who sent it to us, for the reason that I be- 
lieve their action to have been grossly insubordinate. I have 
been told my motion was an error. If so, I am willing to 
make due correction. I want to ask the Chairman for 
the facts." 

Chairman Kuhn said that at the last regular meeting an 
envelope had been handed him. On opening it he found 
enclosed the communication from the academic faculty. 

"A postscript said a duplicate was in the hands of the 
President. That was the fact. I saw the duplicate in the 
hands of President Ayers at that meeting. I treated the 
copy sent to me as the original, and laid it before the" board, 
with the result that it was returned to the faculty." said 
Chairman Kuhn. 

"I hold it exceedingly strange that you sat in your place 
at the head of this table knowing that President Ayers had 
the petition for a hearing in his possession, and that neither 
you nor he informed the board of the fact — a fact wlhich 
relieves tlie members of the academic faculty from the charge 
of insubordination, for they had sent the petition to the Pres- 



— 68 — 

iden't, as the rules require. Yet you gentlemen said nothing 
of the facts. I may add that a member of the academic 
faculty stated to me that their reason for sending a duplicate 
to the board was because they felt that had but one been sent 
the President would not have communicated it to the board," 
said Dr. Reamy. "The communication sent to President 
Ayers was the original, and he made no sign to the board, 
and neither did the Ohairman, of his possession of it." 

Dr. Reed interrujDted Dr. Reamy to say that he was 
obliged to leave, but that the statem.ent of the Chairman sat- 
isfied him that the action of the board was right. 

"Right?" exclaimed Dr. Reamy. "Right?" When the 
Chairman of 'this board and the President of the University 
consulted together as to which one of the two petitions should 
be treated as the original and concluded to take that one 
which had come to the hands of Chairman Kuhn as the orig- 
ignal, not stating the entire facts to the board, and allowing 
the vote to return the communication to be taken under a mis- 
apprehension ? It that right ? When the President of- the Uni- 
versity stated to the Chairman of this board the fact of his 
possession of the petition it was the Chairman's duty to have 
stated 'the facts to the board, but he did not. The facts be- 
longed to the board, and the board should have had them." 

PRESIDENT AYERS EXPLAINS. 

President Ayers took the floor at the conclusion of the 
remarks of Dr. Reamy. 

"I desire to state to the tooard that the communication 
from the academic faculty was not handed to me in person 
by the faculty," said he. "It was left in my office with the 
registrar, who sent it to me 'by a messenger boy. I did have 
it at the meeting spoken of ; that is true." 

"It is not of the least moment whether you received th.: 
communication directly from the hands of the academic fac- 
ulty, or at the hands of the messenger service," said Dr. 
Reamy. "The fact of importance is the fact that you had the 
original communication in your possession, and did not 



— 69 — 

make the fact knoivn to the board. Had yo\x done so the 
censure of the academic faculty would not have been made ; 
and, as it is, the crime did not exist. The censure was be - 
cause of the misapprehension of the facts caused by the 
concealment of the possession of the document in the hands 
of the President. Aristotle taught that slaveholding was 
right, and a domestic necessity ; but iie also taught that it was 
not wise to enslave Greeks," and tne interesting meeting 
of the board came to an end, the minutes remaining as they 
were, and the communication from Prof. Frendli remaining 
unread. But it is not smothered, for it is given below : 

REPORT OF PROF. FRENCH. 

Cincinnati, O., March 19, 1900. 
To the Board of Directors of the University: 

Gentlemen — Having decided to sever my connection witii 
the University oi Cincinnati, I beg leave to submit a sum- 
mary final report : 

The department of physics was first organized as a dis- 
tinct department at the time of my appointment to the chair, 
in the year 1883. 

EARLY PERIOD. 

A few basement rooms with meager equipment served a.^, 
a pihysical laboratory. 

The study of electricity was then beginning to demand 
especial attention, yet for some years I was wholly dependent 
for an electric current upon the nearly obsolete primary 
battery. 

As private and public electric plants became installed 
about the city, I was frequently called upon to make pHioto- 
metric and Other tests, and such occasions were utilized as a 
means of instruction to advanced students. 

Finally, in the year 1888, I was so fortunate as to secure 
the privilege of running wires from a neighboring Edison 
plant to the physical laboratory. About this time I liad the 
honor, incidentally, of serving the city in the capacity of Con- 



— 70 — 

suiting Electrician, and all insulation tests, rendered neces- 
sary by the new regulations, were made in the plhysical 
laboratory. This work was instructive to students, and our 
newly acquired facilities were at once productive of great 
benefit. 

The generous owner of the plant, the late Mr. Christian 
Moerlein, had given me permission to use the current ad 
libitum for all experimental purposes, without any cost to 
the University. This valuable concession was extended at 
my request to the chemical laboratory, and enjoyed without 
interruption until our removal to Burnet Woods, a period of 
eig'ht years. 

AT BURNET WOODS. 

It was found impracticaible to extend an experimental 
line to the new site of the University in Burnet Woods, and 
again I found myself destitute of facilities for teaching the 
important su'bject of electricity. 

Under your special authorization I then undertook to 
raise a fund with which to purdiase dynamo-electric ma- 
chinery and install .the s'ame in the large room lalready pro- 
vided for the purpose in the new quarters. 

At my suggestion the width of this room, as originally 
planned, had been increased by nine feet, thereby giving a 
room of 50 by 35 feet. 

From Mr. Moerlein 1 received a gift of $1,000; from Mr. 
Mooney, Mr. Hdbart and other manufacturers, I received 
generous donations toward the purchase price of needed ap- 
pliances, and your honorable body came to my aid with an 
appropriation of $500, for the purchase of an engine and ac- 
cessories. A fifteen-kilowatt dynamo was constructed to 
order, according to a special design. This machine is equiv- 
alent to four dynamos in one, delivering, as desired, four 
different orders of currents, to wit, an ordinary direct cur- 
rent, a simple alternating current, two-phase alternating cur- 
rents and three-phase alternating currents. 

The further equipment of the dynamo room has proceeded 



— 71 — 

gradually since that time, and now includes a large switch- 
'board with all needful accessories. 

In this connection, as well as regards the general work 
of the department, I take pleasure in emphasizing the val- 
uable service of Mr. Louis E. Bogen, the efficient instructor 
in physics, w'ho has been in the department for six years. 

\'ALUE OF THE PRESENT EQUIPMENT. 

The total value at the present time of all apparatus and 
appliances in the piiysical department is $6,500. This is ex- 
clusive of furniture and of the new appointments in Cun- 
ningham Hall, and is according to a detailed inventory and 
appraisement completed and isuljmitted to the President last 
fall. The aggregtate value of donations, secured by me for 
the department, in the form of apparatus, money or equiva- 
lent service, but not including books, is $3,050. While in 
itself not large, the latter aggregate is seen to be nearly one- 
half of the entire value of the present equipment. In this 
sum the value of the electric current, furnished to two labora- 
tories for eig^ht consecutive years, is placed at $800. In 
money I have contributed personally the sum of $510. (Jf 
this amount $400 was paid at one time into the treasury and 
subsequently drawn out on vouchers in paymient for appa- 
ratus ; the balance has been expended directly at various 
times, and no report made of it prior to this time. 

Last month I had 'the honor to report and to transmit to 
you the gift of $101 from the Bullock Electric Company for 
the purchase of a 'liysteresis .meter. My canimunication 
seems to have been overlooked, and I again call attention to 
the gift, that due acknowledgment may be made to the 
company. 

All dynamo-electric machinery possessed by the depart- 
ment has been obtained by me without any financial aid from 
your honorable body. To the department library I have 
given a set of electrical journals and other books. Many 
volumes of Wiedemann's Annalen, costing $12 per year, 



— 72 — 

have been promised to me by a friend. When they come 
to hand I shall take pleasure in placing them in the library 
of the department. 

THE TRAINING AFFORDED. 

With rapidly increasing classes, my time has been mainly 
abs-orbed in teadhing. The character of the training ac- 
quired toy 'Students is best shown by their subsequent careers. 

To the best of my knowledge not one of the young men 
who have taken the full four years' course in physics has 
failed to meet with gratifying success. 

A few years after graduation one of these became elec- 
trician-in-chief of the Eddy Electric Company, of Hartford, 
Conn. ; some are well-known electrical engineers in this city 
During the late war one received a Government appointment 
as Lieutenant of Engineers, after undergoing a rigid exam- 
ination ; another is a valued professor in Baker University ; 
another, a graduate of only two years' standing, was in 
charge of tihe testing department of tihe Bullock Electric 
Company, and has now been sent to England toy that firm 
to superintend the installation of plants. Even among the 
undergraduates are two students of the present senior class, 
Who, with some assistance, have, constructed an induction 
motor of one kilowatt capacity that would reflect credit upon- 
practicing engineers of much experience. 

INCIDENTAL WORK. 

Incidentally I, have given many courses of public lec- 
tures, including courses addressed especially to teachers, to 
engineers and to physicians. At one time I organized lec- 
ture courses in which various memlber^ of the faculty took 
part. 

The Journal of Terrestrial Magnetism was issued in con- 
nection witlh the Department of Physics and Mathematics 
during the term of its founder, Prof. L. A. Bauer. When, 
as editor, I became associated with Prof. Bauer, the field of 
the journal was enlarged and its title changed to "Terrestrial 



— 73 — 

Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity." This journal en- 
joys an international reputation, the majority of its sul)- 
scribers residing in foreign lands. 

Much attention has been attracted of late to differential 
albsorption, as illustrated by Roentgen rays, and to the pro- 
duction of electric light without wires. The importance of 
the latter subject is due to the enormous saving that will 
result when it is possible to obtain light without the present 
excessive loss of energy in the form of nonluminous heat. 
The eradication of this loss will mean a saving of 90 or more 
per cent. It is a fact worthy of mention, since not gener- 
ally known, that from the physical laboratory of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati observations were first reported indicat- 
ing the possibility of electric illumination without wires, 
and also the discovery of actinic action through opaque sub- 
stances on photographic plates. 

These observations, be it noted, did not involve the dis- 
covery, or unconscious employment, of Roentgen rays ; they 
were in a distinct yet neighboring territory. (Proceedings 
of American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Vol.39.) 

It has been aptly said that physics as a science has 
reached the fifth place of decimals. Research work in this 
science requires special facilities and the expenditure of 
money. So great has been the dearth of first necessities for 
the training of students that no money has been available 
for research work in pure science, a fact which has caused 
my work to extend itself in the practical lines of electrical 
engineering. In the ccmpletion, however, of Cunningham 
Hall, one long-felt need has been met. 

THE NEW PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 

In summer vacations I have spent much time and money 
in the visitation of other institutions in furtherance of plans 
and specifications for a new laboratory. To the design of 
the new physical laboratory in Cunningham Hall, and to the 
superintendence of the construction of its interior appoint- 



— 74 — 

nients, 1 have given my best thought and attention. Twenty 
different rooms are provided, including special laboratories 
for advanced or original work in heat, optics, pihotometr}^, 
high vacua, dhemical physics, magnetism and electricity. 

The prospectus drawn up for the next catalogue includes 
many new courses and new lines of work in utilization of 
the new facilities. ■ Several of the rooms, however, are 
totally lacking in equipment. 

In the completion of this laboratory I have attained the 
central aim of my striving for seventeen years. I am now 
impelled by existing conditions to lay down my commission 
and relinquish further long-dherished plans. 

Having given the President due notice of my intention, 
I now tender my resignation, in the desire that it take effect 
at once. Respectfully, 

Thomas French, Jr. 



Refutation of Incorrect or Misleading Statements in the 

Report of the Special Committee of the 

Board of Directors, 



[From the Commercial Tribune, March 24, 1900.] 

The first aneeting of the Citizens' Committee on Uni- 
versity Affairs since the meeting of the University Trustees 
the other night took place yesterday afternoon. 

"These University Trustees are counting without their 
host," said General Hickenlooper, the Chairpian. "The 
highhanded proceedings at the last meeting look very like 
a conspiracy to defend and cloak the President at the ex- 
pense of both justice and truth, and we doubt if the fair- 
play loving citizens of Cincinnati will quietly submit to anv 
such flagrant Csesarism. 

"We, as members of the Citizens' Committee, have re- 
ceived abundant evidence that this dreadful tangle in our 
University has assumed the importance of a national issue 
in educational circles. We have proof that the one-man 



power which the 'board has vested in this President is looked 
upon in university circles all over the country as a fatal stab 
at the educational tenure of office. We. therefore, 
voice the sentiments not alone of our indignant fellow 
citizens here, but also a very widespread protest among 
professional scholars all over the country, when we call a 
halt." 

Other menrtbers of the comimittee were equally em- 
phatic in their condemnation. Dr. Robert L. Stewart was 
not on hand, and the Rev. Mr. Goss is out of the city, but 
Rev. David Phihpson, James A. Green and William N. 
Hobart, the remaining members, used language vitriolic 
enough in discussing the matter. 

"I feel confident." said Mr. Hobart, "that the indigna- 
tion among our best citizens is intense over this question, 
especially at the double-dealing shown up at the last board 
meeting by Dr. Reamy." 

Mr. Green concurred in all these protesting sentiments. 

The committee had before it a communication submitted 
from Prof. Thoinas French, Jr., who has resigned from the 
faculty, which it was asked to pass upon and to lay before the 
public of Cincinnati. The committee imanimously decided 
on making it public. It is known to represent the views of 
the entire facultv, and is as follows : 



— 76 — 
STATEMENT BY PROFESSOR FRENCH. 



IT IS ADDRESSED TO THE CITIZENS COMMITTEE AND TO THE 

PUBLIC. 



To the Citizens' Committee and the Public of Cincinnati: 

After the forceful presentation and vindication of our 
cause by a large committee of intelligent citizens, the mem- 
bers of the faculty felt disinclined to taJke any notice of the 
evasive and sophistical report read and adopted at a meeting 
of the Board of Directors in defense of its recent action. 
This report, be it noted, constitutes its entire defense. 

Manifest to all was the impossibility of reconciling the 
sudden condemnation of the faculty with the successive 
reports of the directory, setting forth in glowing colors, 
year after year, the albility, efficiency and devotion of the 
faculty. 

We had abundant evidence that thoughtful minds every- 
where correctly analyzed the report. An eminent specialist. 
for example, wrote to the Board of Directors asking for any 
facts known to it by reason of which a certain one of our 
num'ber should not be recommended by him for a new posi- 
tion. In reply he received a copy of this report. After 
reading the report, he at once announced his intention of 
writing the recommendation. 

This report, however, contains grave accusations, re- 
flecting upon every member of the faculty, not excepting 
the several men whose resignations were not demanded. 

As a matter of simple justice to myself and to all of my 
former colleagues, I now feel it to be my duty, as a private 
citizen, who values character more than all else in the world, 
to submit to the public a brief statement. Without vindic^ 
tiveness of feeling this statement is written, not for the pres- 
ent only, but also for the future. 

In the Board of Directors, consisting at the time of 



— 77 — 

eig'hteen members, one voice only has been raised in opposi- 
tion to this report. The noble utterances of Dr. Reamy will 
be recorded in history. When the committee which drew up 
this report was appointed, this same voice was heard plead- 
ing, in the name of justice and of parliamentary usage, that 
the minority be represented on that committee. Tlie voice 
was heard, but not heeded. It would be a great misappre- 
hension, however, to suppose that the remaining seventeen 
members of the 'board all subscribed to the report or voted in 
favor of the action previously taken. At the secret session, 
held in the rooms of a court of justice, in which the recom- 
mendations presented by Dr. Ayers were approved, only 
fourteen members were present. Of this number eleven 
voted in the affiitnative, one in the negative, and two de- 
clined to vote. Of those who voted in the affirmative, a 
number have assured members of the faculty that they had 
no foreknowledge of any intention to dismiss nearly the 
entire faculty, but they saw no other course open to them 
than to support the recommendations as presented by the 
President. My own conviction, based on this and other 
evidence, is that this destructive measure was conceived and 
carried through by three of four active persons, who found 
in the new President a willing instrument. The majority 
of the Board of Directors, consisting of high-minded and 
estimable citizens, seem absorbed in their private affairs, 
and the University has claimed so little of their interest that 
they are seldom seen even on great University occasions 
like commencement. 

THE DEANSHIP. 

The statement that the rotary deanship was "enacted at 
the instance of the faculty as the solution of its own dif- 
ficulties" is incorrect. Up to that time there had been no 
faculty difficulties, nor is it likely that any such difficulties 
would have arisen had the board allowed the deanship to re- 
main a faculty office, as it had been hitherto. Honest differ- 
ences of opinion arose in the faculty, but the actual facts of 

LofC. 



the case and the motives of all concerned, are grossly misrep- 
resented in this report. 

That the memfbers of the faculty were not all striving to 
secure the deanship as a stepping stone to the Presidency 
is proved by their individual and collective efforts to secure 
a President from outside. They 'have long recognized the 
need of a President. They appointed a special committee 
to keep the subject ibefore the board and to cooperate with it 
in the effort to secure a President. Finally, when President 
Ayers was elected, the inembers of the faculty, hoping and 
expecting to find in him a wise counselor and an able admin- 
istrator, all assured him of their earnest desire to cooperate 
with him in every way for the upbuilding of the University. 
The good will of members of the faculty toward the Presi- 
dent is further emiphasized by his immediate nomination 
for honorary memibership in Phi Beta Kappa, the first and 
only noimination as yet m.ade. The President owes the honor 
of the key to men whose honor he has not sought to preserve. 

FALSE REPORTS FROM THE FACULTY. 

It is charged that the board has been misled in its annual 
reports by false representations from the faculty. This 
charge carries with it the humiliating confession that the 
defense of the action taken by the board demanded noithing 
less than the repudiation of the board's own acts and the in- 
validation of the entire past history of the University, as 
set forth in the annual reports of the board. The reports 
of Dr. Comegys, of revered memory, and the reports of 
Major Jones — -whose vote, be it noted, was not cast in ap- 
proval of this report — are all publicly discredited, and the 
blam.e thrown upon the faculty. 

Of all members of the board. Dr. Comegys, ever zealous 
in the cause of education, was a constant visitor of the Uni- 
versity, and he wrote from personal knowledge and observa- 
tion. The faculty reports are truthful pictures of the growth 
of the University, and that it 'has grown year by year its 
appointed guardians do not deny. 



— 79 — 

WARNINGS TO PRESIDENT AVERS. 

The committee states tliat "intimations, warning- Presi- 
dent Ayers against attempting removals from the facuU)', 
were forwarded to him from within that body before 
his removal to Cincinnati." All members of the facult^• 
wiho have resigned, or been asked to resign, have been ques- 
tioned respecting this matter ; each and every one denies the 
charge as regards himself. 

If any such letters exist, let them be produced. 

THE CHARGE OF INSUBORDINATION. 

We are charged with repeated manifestations of in- 
subordination. 

Under the absolute despotism of the present administra • 
tion the faculty has ceased 'to be a free deliberative body, 
and its rightful prerogatives have been disregarded in re- 
spect to great university questions. There is reason lo 
believe that a specific statement of our alleged acts of in- 
subordination would lead to developments of great interest 
to the educational world. I limit my attention to the two 
instances explicitly charged against us. 

At a meeting of the 'board, on February 19, 1900, a re- 
spectful petition of the faculty, asking for a hearing, was 
presented to the board by Chairman Kuhn. A member of 
the board, prominently identified with the report under re- 
view, angrily sprang to his feet, censured the faculty for 
gross insubordination in not forwarding its petition through 
■the proper channel, namely, the President, and moved that 
the communication be not received, but returned to the 
senders. 

The original copy of that petition was at that moment 
in the possession of the President of the University, who 
sat 'by the side of the Chairman of the 'board. Chairman 
Kuhn has publicly admitted that he knew the faculty was 
innocent of the charge, and that the President had the peti- 
tion in his possession at that time, yet he put the motion 



— 80 — 

of censure and declared it carried. The President did not 
interpose, but permitted the faculty to incur an unjust cen- 
sure, and he even allowed the members of the Board of 
Directors to vote under a grave 'misapprehension as to tne 
facts. 

Here is a moral exhibition of the "fairness" shown the 
faculty- in this entire procedure, a fairness which called 
forth the resignation of Prof. Myers in an open letter, 
which is referred to by the committee as another act of 
flagrant insubordination. 

THE FACULTY A TEACHING BODY. 

Again it is made a matter of complaint that, with a fev/ 
exceptions, tne members of the faculty 'have done little 
original work and issued few publications pertaining to 
their specialties, "a. distinct feature of a professor's duty." 

The members of the faculty needed not to be reminded by 
the board of this feature of a professor's duty. Few men 
could have worked harder to secure conditions in which 
such work might be adequately performed. 

During these pioneer years of the University the mem- 
bers of the faculty have devoted themselves, of necessity, 
mainly to teaching as their first and most imperative duty. 

The limited income of the University has made it incum- 
bent upon each member of the faculty to attempt to cover a 
field which,- in the great universities, is divided among 
many professors and assistants. 

Last year one member of the faculty surrendered $800 
of his salary in return for four hours of his time wnich tie 
desired to devote to the work of research and publication. 
And here it should be pointed out that neither at the time 
when this arrangement was agreed to iby the board, nor at 
any other time in the past, have its members manifested 
the least interest in research work or in any way encouraged 
the desire of the faculty to devote a portion of its time to 
such investigations or to the issuing by the members of pub- 
lications bearing on their specialties. On the other hand. 



— 81 — 

members of the board have persistently urged that the num- 
ber of lecture and recitation hours per week of the pro- 
fessors should be increased. The new President declined 
to recommend the reappointment of a second assistant in a 
certain department, which has on its class rolls 430 students, 
and he laid upon the professor an increased burden of class- 
room work, whereby it amounted to twenty-two recitation 
hours per week. This amount of teaching, as every uni- 
versity man knows, is wholly prohibitive of effective work 
in the field of original investigation. 

Again, the work of research in all departments has been 
seriously impeded by the absence of an adequate library. 
In the departments of history, chemistry and physics, possi- 
bly also in others, the professors have placed their private 
Hbraries at the service of their departments. The professor 
of chemistry has loaned to the University for the last 
twelve years his large and growing library, consisting of 
1,000 volumes, and valued at not less than $3,000. 

DISPARAGEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

Nothing in this report has caused greater pain and 
astonishment than the attempt to disparage the reputation 
of the University itself, and notching more clearly reveals 
the embarrassment in which the committee found itself 
under the galling fire of public criticism. 

If the statements made concerning the standing of the 
University be true, then are all diplomas held by our alumni 
mere pieces of worthless parchment. After years of hard 
and self-denying study, the graduate beholds the symbol 
of his attainments dishonored by the hand which conferred 
it. How deeply this injury is felt by graduates and students 
has been made painfully manifest to the faculty. Some 
students, in their discouragement, intend to withdraw from 
the University, and even pupils in the high schools, prepar- 
ing for the University, have declared their intention of 
abandoning their purpose. 

But the case is not as represented in this report. That 



— 82 — 

the University of Cincinnati had fairly earned, and was en- 
joying, a high reputation, at home and abroad, at the time 
of the present disaster, and that the members of its faculty 
were held in high esteem in the learned societies of the 
country, is proved by many indisputable facts. 

We have established and maintained a high standard of 
admission, a result depending in no small measure upon 
strict surveillance of schools whose certificates is accepted 
in lieu of an examination. Schools have been placed on the 
privileged List only after the dharacter of their work has been 
established by the examination of their pupils. 

The numiber of students has been steadily increasing for 
a number of years, so as to tax our expanding accommoda- 
tions. Benefactions have come to us with increasing fre- 
quency and magnitude. Many of our alumni have risen 
quickly to positions of honor and responsibility, in which 
they are acquitting themselves with distinction. Our stu- 
dents and graduates have been received into corresponding 
years and graduate departments of the best Eastern col- 
leges. The American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, at the sug^gestion of members of our faculty, 
selected the University of Cincinnati as the depository of 
its valuable and increasing library. About two years ago 
the learned society of Phi Beta Kappa, composed of repre- 
sentatives of all the leading colleges in the country, granted 
to this University a charter in this society, an honor never 
conferred upon a college of questionable standing. It will 
be remembered that the Board of Directors took occasion to 
congratulate the faculty and the friends of the University 
when this distinction was attained. 

After this evidence as to what the reputation of the Uni- 
versity was, prior to January 12, 1900, it is proper to intro- 
duce at this point a pertinent indication of the fact that its 
growing reputation then suddenly experienced a shock from 
which it can not soon recover. 

The learned society of Sigma Xi occupies in the field of 
science a place corresponding to that of Phi Beta Kappa in 



— 83 — 

the field of letters. The faculty made application for a char- 
ter in each society about the same time, but as to Sigma Xi 
it was deemed wiser to await the completion of our new 
laboratories before pressing the petition. The following 
correspondence between a member of our faculty and an 
eminent man of science in the Cornell faculty will explain 
itself: 

"Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., 

"December 26, 1899. 

^"Dear Prof. : Your letter of December 22, with 

reference to the reopening of the question of Sigma Xi 
Chapter for the University of Cincinnati is at hand. I 
scarcely feel able to reply to it without conference by letter 
with other members of the council, but I will write to Prof. 

and others, and will let you know the concensus of 

opinion. To me, personally, there would seem to be nothing 
to be gained by further delay. The Pennsylvania petition is 
in and has been acted on favorably, and I presume that the 
establishment of a chapter there is only a matter of a few 
weeks. I congratulate you and your colleagues of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati upon the development which you are 
witnessing and are helping to bring about in that institution 
Yours very truly, .'" 

This letter was answered on January 12, the very day on 
which resignations were abruptly demanded. The following 
reply was promptly received : 

* "Cornell University, Ithaca, X^. Y., 

"January 16, 1900. 
"Dear Prof. ■ : Your letter of January 12, enclos- 
ing a statement to the Council of Sigma Xi is at hand. I 
think, considering the statements that have appeared in the 
daily press, particularly flie article in the New York Sun of 
last Saturday, with reference to the radical plans of Presi- 
dent Ayers, that it would be an unwise moment to reopen 
the question of Sigma Xi Chapter. If you will abide by my 



— 84 — 

judgment, it will be well to let the matter rest until what 
would appear to be a serious crisis in the history of the insti- 
tution shall have been safely passed. Will you permit me, 
therefore, to hold the statement until the arrival of what we 
may agree upon as a more favorable moment before present- 
ing it to the council ? Yours very truly, ." 

While claiming for the University of Cincinnati an excel- 
lent reputation prior to January 12, 1900, I am making no 
boastful comparison of an institution, not yet emerged from 
a state of financial stringency, with old and wealthy institu- 
tions like Harvard, whose princely income of $1,000,000 ex- 
ceeds our entire endowment. Great universities are the re- 
sult of evolution not of cataclysms. At this time it is im- 
possible to foresee when the University of Cincinnati will 
resume its normal development. 

TESTIMONY OF ALUMNI AND STUDENTS. 

It is no unusual thing for members of alumni and student 
bodies to -make disparaging remarks about some of their in- 
structors. This is probably the case at every college in the 
country. The surprising thing is that a body oi trustees 
willing to receive such testimony, and to base thereon the 
discharge of nearly an entire faculty, should refuse to let 
alumni and students testify on the other side. The out- 
spoken protests of prominent alumni, the mass meetings of 
students in behalf of the faculty, the petition signed by over 
one hundred students asking for fair treatment of the 
faculty, these were all ignored. , 

IRRECONCILABLE REFERENCES TO THE PRESIDENT. 

The committee characterizes the President, on the one 
hand, as a man of great administrative a!bility, and of high 
qualifications for the office of college President ; on the other 
hand, he is depicted as an irresponsible agent, entitled to ex- 
emption from further "gratuitous persecution;" a pliant 
instrumentality, made use of by the board in order to carry 
out a predetermined measure. 



— 85 — 

This measure, sweeping and revolutionary in character, 
is greatly deplored in the educational world, as diminishing 
the just and reasonable security of the professional tenure 
in the United States. This aspect of the case is emphasized 
in letters received from great leaders in the educational field 
of the East and West. Being of such a nature, the measure 
would not have been proposed by men of wisdom in uni- 
versity administration, nor carried out by a college president 
of high qualifications. The views expressed in the Journal 
of Education in the issue of February 8, 1900, have met with 
strong indorsement. 

THE REAL ISSUE EVAUED. 

The real issue, however, is that men shall not be con- 
demned in secret and unheard. This issue, as emphasized 
by the Citizens' Committee and again presented in the re- 
spectful faculty petition, which the board refused to receive, 
has been evaded. 

The committee expresses itself decisively as to the "utter 
futility" of granting the professors a hearing. This state- 
ment is correct. A hearing must prove utterly futile when 
the jury has committed itself irrevocably to a certain verdict 
in advance, as the present jury seems to have done. "There 
is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed." Thus it is 
written. Thomas French, Jr. 

Cincinnati, Anarch 22, ipoo. 



[From the Volksblatt.] 

SOBir bringen in ber fieutigen 5tu§gabe bie (Srmiberung 
be§ ^prof. ^rend) auf bie gegen bie ^rofefforen an ber l^iefigen 
Uniberfttcit er^obenen 23ef(f)ulbigungen. 2)a§ ©cfiriftftiid bilbet 
eine glan^enbe unb bonftdnbtge SOBtberlegung unb geigt, ma§ 
eigentlid) !aum no(i) eine§ SSemeifeS bebarf, mldjtx frf)mad)t)Dtten 
Ungere(f)tig!eit bie Umberfttdt§ == 23e^i3rben fid^ f(f)ulbtg getnad^t 



— 86 — 

l^aben. 2Btr !i3nnen unter foIcf)en Umftdnben ben SSiirgern mci)t 
ben SSoriDurf erfparen, ba^ fie tf)re ^flic^t nid)t erfuHen, tnbem 
fte nid)t bie ni5t{)tgen 5tnftalten gur 9teDrgam[trung ber Untderfttdt 
treffen. Ober foflte e§ tl)nen ettoa gleic^gtltig fein, menn biefeS 
^nftitut gefltffentlii^ ruxnirt unb ba§ ©elb ber ©teuergafiler 
gum ^enfter IfitnauSgetDorfen lt)trb? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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